DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- The Dallas County Census team is working to get 100% participation amid COVID-19.
Sophia Johnson coordinator for the Dallas County census says they have moved to a heavy digital strategy and is promoting the Census through social media and email. “We have contracts with a dozen social influences who have just the right group of people following them so we can bring in the hard to count areas,” said Johnson.
Johnson said this is the first year they are only doing online responses and she hopes that with more people home on their computers, the better the participation.
Every decade the government does a headcount to determine federal funding the amount of seats needed in the house of representatives. Johnson said it’s crucial for everyone to be counted because it determines how the federal government will distribute about a trillion dollars in funding. “With our explosive growth over the past decade we could pick up 3 congressional seats and that gives Texas a bigger say in laws, policies and the federal government,” said Johnson.
The plan was to have mobile units at popular events, but now with event cancellations they have a new plan. “We just began partnering with The Dallas ISD and Loews’s Hardware so we are providing flyers and hand sanitizer, sponsored by the Dallas Mavericks, to distribute them in places where people naturally gather like grocery stores and hardware stores,” said Johnson.
The registration deadline has been pushed back to August 14th. Click here to respond to the 2020 Census.
Hear Kat Boonzaier’s Story Here:
