It’s an election year, so nothing should surprise us, but it’s interesting that some are criticizing Gov. Kay Ivey’s decision to put her efforts into pushing participation in the 2020 Census rather than focusing on the November election and whether she should accept challenger Walt Maddox’s invitation to debate.

Ivey shouldn’t be faulted for taking the pragmatist’s view. While we, too, would like to see a rousing head-to-head comparison of ideas between the GOP incumbent and the Democratic challenger, Ivey has nothing to gain by squaring off with Maddox. In this deeply red state, her victory in November is assumed as a foregone conclusion by many. So why not focus on the Census?

Ivey obviously realizes what many people either don’t remember, or have forgotten – the U.S. Census is an important tool in the maintenance of our government. Census counts establish official data used to determine many things, such as the number of congressional seats in each state, representation in the U.S. Electoral College, and how federal dollars are distributed. An inaccurate representation of the population of a region can have a significant impact for years to come.

Ivey is putting effort into the Alabama Counts initiative to encourage Alabamians to participate in the Census when the time comes, even though many residents are sure to receive the “long form,” which requires a bit of time commitment. There’s another reason to plan to fill out Census surveys – doing so is mandated by law, although we’ve never heard of the Census police.

Gov. Ivey may well consider that an accurate Census count in our state in 2020 is more important to Alabama than the outcome of the November election.

She’d be right.