April 1 was Census Day, but Carol Rushmore wanted to remind everyone that responses can still be turned in until the end of July.
Rushmore, Wrangell's economic development director and head of the local census committee, wanted to clear up a few questions she had received from the public regarding the census, and to encourage further turnout.
One of the most common questions she has heard about the census was about when people can expect to receive physical packets, she said. Rushmore explained that people were being hired to hand-deliver census packets in communities that do not have direct-to-home mailing.
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, she said that this has been put on hold in Wrangell. She said that these physical packets will likely be delivered sometime in the future, but she currently does not know when.
Rushmore also added that several local organizations were planning to hold open houses prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to help people fill out the census, including the library, the Salvation Army, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association. This is something they will reconsider after the pandemic has hopefully passed later in the summer, she said.
While physical packets are not coming immediately, Rushmore said that people can still respond to the census online, at http://www.2020census.gov. Respondents do not need a special ID number to respond online, which would have been part of the packets, she said.
Instead, people can put down their address online, or simply just describe where they live.
Another question about the census regards the head of household. For a home to be considered a "native household," Rushmore explained, an adult Alaskan Native must be listed as the head of the household in the census. This is especially important in households with native and non-native family members, she said.
Native households are important for the local tribe to have an accurate count of native residents, which in turn impacts the amount of money they can receive.
Aside from it being important for proper population counts and to determine how to allocate funding at a federal level, Rushmore added that it is important to respond to the census to win an informal contest between Southeast communities. Rain Coast Data has been tracking the amount of responses to the census across many Southeast towns, and providing weekly updates to the "Southeast Alaska Census Race." As of April 23, the Wrangell borough is in sixth place with a response rate of 14.1 percent. Petersburg is trailing behind in seventh place with a response rate of 13.9 percent. Wrangell has been ahead of Petersburg every week since the "race" started, Rushmore said, so more people need to respond to the census if they want to see this trend continue.
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