The U.S. Census Bureau is resuming operations in 11 states including Arizona this week. Census workers are starting by delivering surveys to hundreds of thousands of Arizona homes across the state to individuals who do not typically receive mail at home like P.O. box owners.
The effort won’t require interaction between household members and census employees, said Anthony Kozlowski with Lake Havasu City government.
"This process is very important to the Census Bureau as well as the city as we try to get more people to participate in the overall count for the community," he said.
As of Tuesday, Arizona’s self-response rate was 56%, slightly lower the national rate of nearly 60%.
Resuming operations in Arizona also means the bureau can move forward with its local hiring process and plan to follow up with unresponsive households in August.
The bureau’s staff are trained to follow social distancing guidelines and have been issued with protective equipment to keep themselves and others safe.
“We are not knocking on doors in this operation," says Arizona Census Partnership coordinator Tammy Parise. "Our enumerators, as we call them, will be canvassing the neighborhoods that require the delivery of these questionnaires, hanging the questionnaire packet and bag on a door handle or other easily viewable area around a housing structure.”
Lake Havasu City also reminds households that have already received their census invitation packets to fill them out as soon as possible.
