[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and heads up on the 2020 census. It is almost last call and the Trump administration is trying to close the doors earlier than originally announced. Here's what's happening. The September 30th deadline for collecting responses is a month earlier than the administration had proposed when first adjusting for the coronavirus and is being implemented despite internal warnings that the move would reduce accuracy.

If you thought that you had until the end of October to fill out your census form which was the original date, think again. The Trump administration has moved the deadline back again until the end of this month despite internal warnings that the move would-- They're using the term "reduce accuracy". That's the internal warning language according to CNN. Joining me now on this last-ditch rush to get everyone counted is Rossana Rosado, the New York State Secretary of State. One of the jobs of Secretary of State at the state level here is to oversee the census. Secretary Rosado, always great to have you on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.

Rossana Rosado: Good morning. Always great to be with you Brian and thank you for all the work you've done, not just on the census, but through this pandemic of keeping New Yorkers informed and always being the steady voice of "we're going to make it".

Brian: Thank you very much. Listeners, help us report this story if you are a census enumerator because that's this last phase that we're in. Anybody listening right now who happens to be one of the people hired to go door-to-door? For those who haven't done it online or mailed it in, you're trying to knock on their doors and get their census responses. Any census enumerators listening now? How's it going? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. We would love to hear any reports from the field from census enumerators right now. 646-435-7280. If any of you happen to be listening which, of course, I don't know if there are. Secretary Rosado, same question. How's it going?

Rossana: This has been a rough census from the beginning because even before the year started, there was a purposeful intimidation by the president and his cabinet. They started the thing with the citizenship question and they started to identify exactly the groups we were worried about turning out for the census. There's been a purposeful intimidation from filling it out, to begin with, and we prepared for that.

We traveled the state, we work with local organizations. We had plans with the libraries and all of those nonprofits who are on the ground with folks. Then of course before the [inaudible 00:03:18] census on April 1st, we had COVID. It's been a rough go. Right now, New York is ranking 34th of all the states with a 62% overall response. The national response is 65.5%. We're not so far from the national but in general, that's a far away from 100% participation.

I can't think of another time with what we are going through now, not just with the health crisis, but also with schools and planning for schools. I can't think of a more direct connection to the importance of an accurate count. The federal dollars that are allocated based on an accurate count, affect education directly, affect roads, and affect planning. Even though everyone is stressed out with, "When do I go back to work? When do my kids go back to work?" We've been steadily ringing the bell and saying, "Don't forget to do the census. Don't forget to fill out the census. It's super important."

Brian: It's so easy. You can just go to "my2020census.gov", "my2020census.gov", and you won't have to wait for people like Sarah in Manhattan to come knocking at your door. Hi, Sarah.

Sarah: [laughs]

Brian: You're on WNYC.

Sarah: Hi, Brian.

Brian: Hi.

Sarah: Great to be here. Love your show. I love my work. I work five days a week, five hours a day. Good schedule and it's very varied. I walk up seventh-floor walk-ups and gloomy buildings and knock on doors. Then I go to multiunit buildings and talk to Doorman. I try to get them to say, "Is this person out of town?" A lot of people are out of town and they may or may not have filled out a census form where they are in Florida or Texas or Timbuctoo.

Brian: How do you know who you're looking for?

Sarah: How do I know? We were given these iPhones and we have a case list. We don't have their names. We just have the apartment information and we go to the location and we follow the scripted list of questions and we've had extensive training. I was training from August 5th for a couple of weeks. I just took it slowly. We had extensive training. We each have a supervisor. Each group, each team has a supervisor. We can ask questions. We can talk to each other.

Brian: Sarah, when you find the right people home, how responsive are they being to you?

Sarah: How what?

Brian: Responsive. Are they giving you the answers or are they closing the door in your face or something in between?

Sarah: Both. Some people are extremely compliant and pleasant. Other people say, "No, I don't like the government. I don't want to answer this." You're given replies such as, "It's extremely confidential." "It's very important in case we are eligible for federal dollars for schools, housing, whatnot else, and also congressional representation." We're giving scripted replies and answers. Some people are in the middle. A lot of people I knock on doors in the seventh-floor walk-ups, the person who opens the door says, "Oh, I just moved in." It's my dilemma because they weren't there, April 1. We have to count people who were there April 1. I try to give the best response I can in the phone answers and send it to whoever to use it.

Brian: Thank you, Sarah. It sounds like you're good at your job and I really appreciate it. Secretary Rosado, in case we had any doubt, we have a complete full board of callers who are census enumerators. Maybe people are-

Rossana: I hope you're kidding. That's wonderful.

Brian: -listening on their headphones as they're going around and doing their rounds, I don't know. Let me take one more that might be an interesting contrast to Sarah because Sarah is walking up apartment buildings in Manhattan as she described. Here's one in New Canaan, Connecticut. Tom, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Tom: Good morning, Brian. I started doing it about a month ago and frankly, I have not been available for about a week because I have other jobs but I see the case list. There were 50 cases marked "dangerous". In other words, it has to have a special enumerator to handle that. Find a neighbor, find a proxy who can get a headcount. That's what we're up against.

Brian: Are you finding people responsive? I imagine it's different than in Manhattan. Actually the last thing I did before a lockdown, Sunday, March 8th, I did an in-person appearance at the New Canaan Library. That was the last place I was before I started working from home more or less, but it's private homes there, by and large. You're going around in your car and ringing doorbells?

Tom: Yes. I park on the side of the road and then walk up the driveway, knock on the door and it's a mix. You have to look at the notes. There might be a half dozen prior attempts and then the previous enumerators indicate what the problem was, where they couldn't get the information. The census smartphone gives you a lot of options for refusals or don't know. Ultimately we're looking for a headcount but they want birth-dates, racial background, and some other statistical things that are all protected by law. Unfortunately this year, there's a lot less cooperation.

Brian: Tom, thank you for that report. New York Secretary of State, Rossana Rosado, what are you thinking listening to those couple of calls?

Rossana: Listen, it's a tough job. I think the number one thing you can do to avoid the home visit is to still fill it out. You have time to fill it out online. You can do it by phone and you can do it online. You can still do your paper version. Since you have listeners all over, I just wanted to let you know that Manhattan and Staten Island are ahead of the pack with 60% and 63% response rate. The Bronx and Queens and Brooklyn. Brooklyn's the lowest right now at 55% and as you know, Brooklyn has the most people. I want to get folks to just finish it. It takes less than 10 minutes. It's 10 questions. It's really super important for us as a state and for the city especially, given the financial crunch we're going through now.

Brian: I want to go into that a little bit more. We've talked about this many times on the show this year, but I think especially for those people who haven't stepped up yet, it's worth reminding everybody again, why is this so important?

Rossana: Yes. The census data, it impacts more than $800 billion in federal funding to program. Some of those programs are Medicaid, SNAP, Medicare, Highway Planning and Construction, Section 8 housing, Title 1 grants, local education agencies, National School Lunch Program, special education grants, Head Start, Early Head Start. One of the things we did last year in preparing, what we found out that many families across the board failed to count their babies. They don't count the babies and there's a direct connection between an accurate count of babies to figure out how many seats you need in Head Start and pre-K programs.

There are different reasons people forget. The baby might be staying with grandma. All of those programs that I mentioned are impacted and as someone mentioned before, the number of congressional representatives from my area are also impacted people, may or may not care about that, but they do care about schools and playgrounds and hospitals, roads, and housing, and especially Medicaid and health care. Again with what we're going through now as a community.

Brian: Could you address immigrant families explicitly for a minute because one good thing that I read about my own neighborhood, which is Upper Manhattan, is that it seems to have a very high response rate largely because the Dominican community leadership in Upper Manhattan has been very organized and very successful in getting people to fill out their census forms. Do you think that just the prospect that the Trump administration had floated of putting a citizenship question on the census, which make people afraid for their own immigration status has already scared off a lot of immigrants, documented or undocumented, and would you say anything reassuring to those people if they're part of the undercounted?

Rossana: Yes. Absolutely was this intimidation, and not only that, even when we told them, "That's off the table and the Supreme Court ruled on this," people still have this nagging thing. There are thousands of deportations and as you know, children in detention. People knowing that I'm not going to give any information to anyone. I don't blame them for being afraid, but we have used our organizations that are on the ground, working with these populations with immigrants from all over the world and telling them that this is confidential. That this information for the census is confidential for 72 years by law. This information will not be shared. We're looking for basic things in the census. Who's living there. What are their ages, nationality, and race, and that's it. We're not looking for place of employment or any of those other questions that people don't want to give information about.

Brian: We're just going to wrap this up with me giving out a web address and a phone number before thanking our guest Rossana Rosado, the New York State Secretary of State. Listeners, if you haven't done it yet, it's as easy as going online. If that's the easiest way for you, "my2020census.gov", "my2020census.gov" or you can call and do it on the phone. It's 844-330-2020. 844-330-2020. 844-330-2020. We will leave it there for today. You have until the end of this month on this unless the attempt in court to extend it into October is successful. As far as we know today, September 30th. Rossana Rosado New York State Secretary of State. Thank you so much.

Rossana: Thank you, Brian.

[music]

Copyright © 2020 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.