Northeast Ohio Cities Push For Full Census Count In 2020

Northeast Ohio communities hope no one goes uncounted in the 2020 Census.

Complete count committees, local groups made up of area government and community leaders, will spend the next few months promoting the decennial count.

They’ll focus particularly in neighborhoods that recorded lower response rates in 2010 — often places with higher proportions of renters and residents who have moved recently. In Cuyahoga County, those areas include much of Cleveland and several inner-ring suburbs.

Akron and Summit County hired a census coordinator to oversee local efforts. Even the hold message on the county phone lines will remind people to participate in the census, Summit County spokeswoman Greta Johnson said.

“We do not want people to be afraid to fill it out,” Johnson said. “It’s so important for people to understand, if they enjoy parks in their community, if they enjoy infrastructure on their highways, if they want to have their voice heard in Washington, they have to fill out the census.”

Residents can take the census by mail, by phone and — for the first time — online. Invitations to respond will go out to households by April 1, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The census will not ask respondents whether they are U.S. citizens. The Trump administration backed down from plans to add a citizenship question after June 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.