Montanans Run Out Of Time To Complete Census

Montanans who thought they had more time to fill out the 2020 Census ran out of time last week when the Supreme Court approved the Trump administration’s request to end the 2020 Census earlier than expected.

Another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau has had to adjust their normal processes to ensure everyone in the state is counted. The original deadline for the U.S. Census was July 31 and was originally extended to Oct. 31 to allow the opportunity to respond to challenges the pandemic created. In August, the Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham stated the deadline would be shifted again to Sept. 30 in order to speed up the completion of the data collection and appointment counts while protecting the health and safety of the public in addition to the Bureau’s workforce. On Sept. 24, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the U.S. Census Bureau to continue its 2020 operations through Oct. 31, however on Sept. 28, the U.S. Census Bureau announced it intended to defy that court order and wind down operations by Oct. 5. A few days before that wind-down date, the federal district court on Oct. 2 ruled that the Bureau must comply with the court’s order and continue operations through Oct. 31. An emergency request by the Justice Department however changed all of that.

The Justice Department argued the Census Bureau is under pressure to meet the legal deadline of Dec. 31 for reporting to the president the first set of census results, which includes the state population counts to determine each state’s share of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Those numbers also determine how many Electoral College votes each state gets in order to determine the President in the 2024 and 2028 elections. On the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter from the unsigned court order

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s action to allow the U.S. Census Bureau to end the decennial count early will have lasting and damaging impacts on Montana,” stated Governor Bullock in a statement. “As Justice Sotomayor recognizes in her dissent, rural and tribal places will be disproportionately impacted. Congress now has within its power to hold the U.S. Census Bureau accountable and require the constitutionally mandated count to continue through October.”

Following the ruling, the U.S. Census Bureau announced it would end door-to-door counting operations by the end of the day on Oct. 15, and cut off the option for people to self-respond online or by phone.

“Throwing the Census further into chaos is a disservice to the people of Montana, particularly Montanans living in rural and tribal communities. Entire communities in Montana have not been fully counted, which puts at risk more than $2 billion in annual federal funds that pay for our roads, schools and hospitals. An inaccurate count of Montanans means our local legislative and voting districts won’t match our communities and it means Montana is less likely to regain a second seat in the U.S. House of Representatives,” stated Lt. Governor Mike Cooney, the chairman of the Montana Complete Count Committee in a statement.

As of Oct. 13, Montana ranked 45th among states in its overall response rate and as of Oct. 19, Montana has a 60.4 percent overall response rate. Valley County saw a 41.1 percent overall response rate. The national self-response rate is 67 percent. The Census count is used to determine the amount of federal funding distributed to the state – overall more than $2 billion from more than 300 federal programs is allocated back to Montana based on Census information.