Census Day has come and gone, but the count goes on despite the coronavirus that has disrupted so much else in American life.
Participation in the U.S. Census is an obligation that comes around every 10 years, with or without a worldwide pandemic.
The Constitution requires it and for good reason. Getting the numbers right is just more difficult, given the constraints forced by the spread of covid-19.
So far, the census response rate nationwide sits at 50.7 percent of households. The Arkansas response drags a little behind at 47 percent.
Those numbers include all the responses that have come in online, by mail or by phone. They are far from what they need to be.
April 1 was the official Census Day, which is the reference date for the decennial exercise that attempts to count every person living in the United States on that date.
By now, all households should have received letters from the U.S. Census Bureau with instructions on how to respond online to this year's questions.
The goal this year, unlike in the past, is to get people to self-respond, to do as much of the count as possible electronically. Those who are computer-resistant can call in or answer by mail.
Actual printed forms, similar to those received for past counts, are being sent to try to beef up responses from those who don't answer online.
Later, census takers intend to be in the field, leaving forms on doors and interviewing those who still haven't complied. Just when that can happen depends, again, on the spread and response to the virus.
Efforts will nonetheless be made to count even the most hard-to-reach populations, such as the homeless, wherever they live.
The goal is a complete count of the U.S. population, although that is difficult in the best of years.
This year, the virus has forced changes in the Census Bureau's planning, delaying some phases that require person-to-person interaction.
The virus has also made hard-to-count populations all that harder to count. In Arkansas, before the virus, that number was supposedly 15 percent of this state's population, or 15 out of 100 people who might not get counted.
A complete count is a more elusive goal now, even though the count remains as important as it ever was.
Appeals continue to come from state and local officials and many other advocates who are trying to explain the stakes in getting an accurate count not just for states but also for communities within them.
Public officials and other civic leaders all over the country had organized to promote the census with rallies and other public gatherings aimed at increasing the count.
While the virus has stalled all those efforts, advocates are still trying to reach people through social media and other means.
They can't afford not to try, given what is at risk for their respective communities.
Census results will literally help determine how billions of federal dollars get distributed over the next 10 years. Arkansas will use the data, too, to dole out state funding to cities and counties and to validate state investment in highways and schools and other projects and programs.
Population figures among the states and within them guide not only public decisions on all manner of issues but also drive private development and planning.
Another reason for the nationwide count is to determine representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Every state gets two U.S. senators but the number of representatives for each is based on population.
Arkansas' population, relative to the rest of the country, has in modern history given this state four seats in the House. More heavily populated states get more of the 435 members of the House, although each state has at least one.
These same population numbers are used, too, to apportion seats in the state Legislature (35 in the state Senate and 100 in the Arkansas House of Representatives).
City ward boundaries, school district lines and voting precincts are all drawn based on census data.
The count needs to be right and that depends on the American people, not the virus.
Commentary on 04/22/2020