MANCHESTER, NH –July 28 through August 2 is Census PUSH Week in the Northeast. Counties and cities will compete to see who can increase their census self-response rate the most. Manchester will be competing with other cities with more that 100,000 inhabitants including Lowell, MA, Hartford, CT, and Buffalo, NY. While Manchester currently leads the pack with a self-response rate of 64.6 percent, the winner will be selected based on how much they are able to move the needle during the one week PUSH period.
⇒ Link to self-response results by state.
Like many other things, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the normal census-taking schedule. During a normal census year enumerators would have headed out to knock on doors starting in May, but because of the COVID-19 crisis, fieldwork has been delayed until August 11.
Census PUSH Week is designed to maximize the number of people who have self-responded by mail, online, or by phone before census takers head out to follow up with people who have yet to respond. Anyone can still respond online or by calling a toll free number.
Census workers will be holding Mobile Questionnaire Assistance Events in various locations around the city where the response rates have been low. By some estimates, 1-in-3 people in these Manchester neighborhoods were undercounted in the 2010 Census, which led to less federal aid for city parks, roads, schools, and social services.
There are many reasons people don’t respond to the census. Some people may have moved when the mailings were sent out and they didn’t receive one. Others may not have access to the internet to fill out the online forms. Language barriers are another obstacle.
Some people may have suspicions about how the information will be used. Federal law prevents the Census Bureau from releasing any information at the individual or household level for 72 years. However, immigrants are especially on edge since President Donald Trump exacerbated their concerns by issuing a memorandum that would “exclude illegal aliens from the apportionment base,” meaning they would not be included in the numbers used for congressional redistricting in 2021. It is unclear how the Trump Administration would ascertain this information. So far, three separate lawsuits have been filed challenging the memo.
Census workers will set up tables equipped with electronic tablets outside public places to catch people when they are out and about and provide them with the opportunity to fill out the census forms. The questionnaire is available online and by phone in English and 12 other languages and they will have instructions in an additional 59 languages.
Census workers will be at the following locations in Manchester during Census PUSH Week.
- Family Dollar, 325 Lincoln St. July 27, July 28 Noon to 3 p.m.
- Center for New Americans, 72 Concord St. July 28, July 30, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- St. Anne/St. Augustin, 188 Spruce St. July 28, July 30, 1 to 5 p.m.
- Price Rite, 365 Lincoln St. July 28, July 31, Aug. 1, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Embassy Laundromat, 217 Union St. July 28, July 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- The Bridge Cafe, 1117 Elm St. July 30 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Ben and Jerry’s, 940 Elm St. July 31, Aug. 1 6 to 9 p.m.
You can check on the city’s progress here.
