By Carol Vaughn —
Accomack County is ahead of where it was a decade ago in terms of residents’ response rate to the U. S. census — that’s the good news.
“The bad news is that we are way behind the rest of the state,” said Accomack County Administrator Michael Mason in an April 15 report to the Accomack County Board of Supervisors.
The response rate in Virginia was at nearly 54% as of April 15; but Accomack’s was only 25.8%.
Chincoteague’s response rate to date is “even lower than that,” said Chincoteague Town Manager James West at the April 16 town council meeting.
“The census is necessary. It will decide our representation, how the districting will take place, and future representation at the federal level and the state level…It also decides how federal dollars will be spent,” West said.
He said it took him around five minutes to complete the census online.
Northampton’s response rate was 27.3% as of April 15, Mason said.
One issue is that the many residents who get their mail at a post office box did not receive the initial mailing from the Census Bureau reminding them to complete the census.
Both counties have a complete count committee to encourage all residents to complete the census, which can be done by telephone or on the internet.
The committee is planning to send a postcard by bulk mail at each Eastern Shore post office, with information in English and Spanish about how to complete the census.
“We expect that to hit all the Post Office boxes by this Saturday,” Mason said.
The self-response period has been extended to Aug. 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Complete the census online at www.2020Census.gov
To complete the census by telephone, call toll free between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m Eastern Time: 844-330-2020 (English); 844-468-2020 (Espanol); or 844-477-2020 (Haitian Creole).
