Officials throughout the state have been preaching the importance of the census throughout the year, as the count helps determine where federal money is spent.

Alabama Counts! Chairman Kenneth Boswell said it doesn’t matter which program or project you want funded — better roads, more educational opportunities, improved health care — finding a personal reason for filling out the census is key.

“Everybody has to have a personal reason to do it,” Boswell told The News Courier.

For him, it’s his grandchildren. Children don’t have a say in many matters, he said, so it’s on the adults to speak for them and make sure they have the same opportunities that were afforded to previous generations.

More than that, “I don’t think there’s any one of us that doesn’t want more for their children or grandchildren,” Boswell said. “If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your child and grandchildren.”

This year’s census questionnaire has more than just funding at risk. The 2020 census also determines how many congressional seats Alabama has moving forward.

“There’s nothing more important as we’ve seen over the last two or three months and especially the last six weeks from the CARES Act and the stimulus dollars from Congress,” Boswell said, referring to the federal government’s $2.2-trillion package to help businesses, workers and health care affected by the novel coronavirus.

Boswell said he understands some people are concerned about the government having too much personal information about them, but he explained the 2020 census is much simpler and less time-consuming than previous counts.

“I remember when our family would get big, thick packets to fill out,” he said. “They’ve got it narrowed down to nothing but basic demographic questions. It takes less than six minutes to fill it out.”

The questions include how many people lived in the home on April 1; if the home is owned or rented; if it is a mobile home, apartment or house; the name, age, sex and race of the head of household; and how other people in the home are related to the head of household. It does not ask if residents are citizens.

Residents can fill out the form mailed to their residence or visit my2020census.gov to complete the questionnaire. On average, the census takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

In years past, census workers would visit in-person if a residence had not completed the census yet. Due to state health orders, that plan has been put on hold, but Boswell said workers will be visiting homes that generally receive mail at a post office box.

To protect residents and workers, Boswell said workers will leave a packet at the residence with information about the census and an invitation to complete it, but they will not knock on the door or engage personally with those who live at the residence.

“We’ve started refocusing and rethinking our positions because we can’t get out in the communities like we were planning and doing live interviews and live community inputs, but we’ve went to texting and phone banking, newspaper ads, things of that nature,” Boswell said.

Monday’s numbers

As of Monday, Alabama was among the few states in the southern United States that had achieved a response rate higher than 57%, but it was still behind the national response rate of 59.6%.

Boswell said they’ve noticed areas in the northern part of the state are doing better than in the western part of the state, but “we still have a long way to go.”

In Limestone County, the response rate has slowly increased to 56.5%, with Athens and Lester continuing to lead the way at 57.3% and 53.6%, respectively. Ardmore and Elkmont were nearly tied Monday, as Ardmore had increased to 45.0% while 45.1% of Elkmont homes had completed the census.

Only 40.9% of Mooresville homes have completed the census so far.