The Complete Count Committee is encouraging residents to complete their Census forms.

As of April 12, the response rate for Cascade County is 48.5 percent. Within the City of Great Falls, the response rate is 53.8 percent.

Montana’s total response rate so far is 39.8 percent.

According to the committee, the city’s response rate for the 2010 Census was 75 percent and the committee’s goal is to surpass that rate.

The Census is conducted every 10 years and was established when the 2nd Session of the First Congress passed a law in March 1790.

At the time, the Congress assigned responsibility for the 1790 census to the marshals of the U.S. judicial districts under an act which, with minor modifications and extensions, governed census taking through 1840, according to government records.

The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in “two of the most public places within [each jurisdiction], there to remain for the inspection of all concerned…” and that “the aggregate amount of each description of persons” for every district be transmitted to the president, according to the Census Bureau.

In 1790, the census asked for the name of the head of the family and the number of persons in each household of the following descriptions, according to the Census Bureau:

• Free white males of 16 years and upward (to assess the country’s industrial and military potential)
• Free white males under 16 years
• Free white females
• All other free persons
• Slaves

The first census was conducted under Thomas Jefferson, who was the Secretary of State at the time, and marshals collected data in the 13 original states, plus the districts of Kentucky, Maine, and Vermont and the Southwest Territory (Tennessee), according to the Census Bureau.

“Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson expressed skepticism over the final count, expecting a number that exceeded the 3.9 million inhabitants counted in the census,” according to the Census Bureau.

The Census data is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives and to draw congressional and state legislative districts.

The data also determines how federal funding is allocated to more than 100 programs, including Medicaid, Head Start, grants for community mental health services and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

During the April 7 meeting, City Commissioner Owen Robinson said that:

• everyone with a street address should have received two invitations to respond to the Census count. If the second one came after you have already responded, ignore it.
• If you did not get one because, for example, your address is a post office box, you can still respond by going online at 2020census.gov. On the opening page click on the green box with the word “RESPOND.” It will ask you for your 12-digit Census ID. If you did not receive an invitation letter with a Census ID, you can use your address. Notice, that you can click just below the login box where it says, “if you do not have a Census ID, click here.”
• If you haven’t responded and have lost your invitation, follow the instructions above as if you haven’t received an invitation.

The self-response deadline was initially July 31 but has been extended to August 14.

Gov. Steve Bullock has asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to extend the deadline for the census from Aug. 14 to at least Sept. 30 to ensure an accurate count while allowing for continued health and safety measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“Many planned efforts to achieve high self-response rates from hard-to-count populations and rural geographic areas are no longer viable due to COVID-19 response measures, including those mandated by the U.S. Census Bureau,” Bullock said in his letter to Ross. “More time is needed for effective outreach.”

Bullock noted Montana’s “significant share of hard-to-count residents, seven tribal reservations, and our low population density over a large land area,” which all present challenges to getting an accurate census count.

“In Montana, we must ensure that everyone is counted in the 2020 Census. Our schools, hospitals, highways, communities and families depend on it,” Bullock wrote.

The Census has already adjusted operations and extended deadlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Census takers were initially scheduled to begin follow-ups with households that hadn’t yet responded from May 13 through July 31. Now that will run May 28 through Aug. 14.

The Census is asking administrators of facilities like nursing homes, prisons and student housing to choose an option for counting their residents that requires less in-person contact.

That work was scheduled to run April 1 through June 5. It’s been delayed to April 16 through June 19.

Census takers are also working with service providers at soup kitchens, shelters and regularly scheduled food vans to count the people they serve. That was planned for March 30 through April 1 but has been delayed to April 29 through May 1.

Census takers were scheduled to county people under bridges, in parks, in all-night businesses and the like on April 1. That has been delayed to May 1.

Census takers were scheduled for April 9 though May 4 to count people staying at campgrounds, RV parks, marinas and hotels if they do not usually live elsewhere.

That has been delayed to April 23 through May 18.