Census says all should be counted as it opens Utah offices

Elesi Schwenke performs during the grand opening of the Salt Lake City-area census office in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The 2020 count in April will be the first time the questionnaire will be offered online, though Utahns can also respond by mail or over the phone.

SOUTH SALT LAKE — The 2020 census is more than six months away, but its workers are already starting to canvas Utah neighborhoods as elected leaders and advocates push to make sure everyone is counted.

Several gathered at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Salt Lake City-area office to celebrate its opening Tuesday and encourage participation in the once-a-decade survey that will take place in April. It’s the first time the questionnaire will be offered online, though Utahns can also respond by mail or over the phone.

“This is an opportunity to be part of history,” said Cathy Lacy, the Denver-based regional census director. “If we miss someone in your household, that means they’re not represented in the numbers of the funding that’s coming back to your local community. They’re also not included in the planning for the next 10 years.”

The lead-up to the census has met with fears about digital security and a now-abandoned push from Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to include a question about whether a person is a U.S. citizen.

“We try to make it safe,” Lacy added, emphasizing those at her agency can be imprisoned or fined for breaching confidentiality.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Cathy Lacy, director of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Denver regional office, speaks during the grand opening of the Salt Lake City-area census office in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.

The count helps to determine a state’s federal funding and how voting districts are drawn. Nationally, states received more than $675 billion in federal money in 2015, according to the agency.

Tuesday’s event included music, a traditional Samoan dance performance and a blessing from Virgil Johnson, a spiritual leader and former tribal chairman for the Confederated Tribes of Goshute Reservation. He prayed briefly for the well-being of an increasingly diverse Utah population and for the census workers traveling across the state to count it.

“I would hope that when these years come around, that we would all be found,” he said. “It’s significant that we would have representation, that we are able to have our voice heard by those who represent us, and that we as people — when it comes time for us to choose those people — that we make the right choices,” Johnson said.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Attendees recite the Pledge of Allegiance during the grand opening of the Salt Lake City-area census office in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said though new Americans face unique challenges and disenfranchisement, the survey considers them equal. Her county is also spending money to reach immigrants who may still have a fear of participating.

“I think it’s important to remember there is no difference between me — a fifth-generation Utahn, and my count, and my family’s count — and a new family that may still be looking for a permanent place to live, who may be trying to figure it out,” she said. “If there’s a neighborhood that goes with a 20 percent undercount, that matters for years to come.”

The numbers affect not just federal funding, she said, but also local policy decisions.

Jake Fitisemanu, a West Valley City councilman, greeted those in attendance in Samoan. He said the nation’s Founding Fathers had similar concerns to today’s leaders.

“At the very first census, they were convinced that there was an undercount,” and attributed the shortfall to limitations in technology and communication over a sprawling rural nation, Fitisemanu said. The nation’s first leaders were confused, he added, about whether and how to count enslaved people, Native Americans and immigrants.

“It’s kind of wild to think that even though we’ve been doing the census now for over 200 years, those very same dynamics that contribute to undercount still persist today,” Fitisemanu said.

Employees of the Salt Lake office and another in Orem will be knocking on doors around the state in coming months to ensure addresses are correct.

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