BY LAUREN REICHELT
Rio Arriba County

Rio Arriba County residents are experiencing problems responding to the Census for several reasons:

Most residents do not have mailed delivered to their homes but use PO Boxes. When you try to respond at www.my2020census.gov, you are told in big, bold letters to enter the code that has been mailed to you, but the census doesn’t mail to PO Boxes. It tells you in smaller letters underneath to click a link if you don’t have a code, but many people don’t see that.

People trying to call the English 800 number say they get a busy signal and can’t get through.

There are no enumerators coming to our homes, so essentially, people in this remote county are left without any way to respond.

Rio Arriba loses $3,750 for each individual not counted, or $37,500 over a ten year period. We also potentially lose Congressional representation. At the present rate, we are facing a 96.6% undercount which would mean a loss of $1,425,572,625 over ten years. Imagine how many schools could be funded, pandemics could be stopped, and hospitals could be built! Imagine trying to run a school, build a road or face a pandemic without it!

Don’t let the federal government discount us. Take the time to make sure your voice is heard, even if it means calling in the middle of the night. If you have a PO Box, look for the dialogue box below the box that requests a mailed code. We still need to hear from 37,623 of you!