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Today, households all over the country will begin receiving "invitation" letters from the U.S. Census Bureau with instructions on responding to the 2020 count -- preferably online or by phone.
"Open it, read it, and do what it says," states an email that Logan Township officials forwarded from Richard Buck, partnership specialist with the Philadelphia Regional Census Center.
The census aims to count everyone, based on where they are living on April 1, which is Census Day.
The invitation letters -- all addressed to "Resident," because the bureau knows where there are households but doesn't know names -- should arrive via U.S. mail no later than March 20.
The letters will contain a Census ID, which identifies the exact location of each recipient's house -- although online and phone responses can be made without Census IDs by those who lose or misplace their invitation letters, Buck said.
Households that normally get their mail at a post office box will have their invitation letters, along with paper questionnaires, hand-delivered to their homes by census workers between today and March 20, according to Buck.
The Census Bureau isn't sending anything to post office boxes because those can be for businesses, which aren't counted, or they may be for households that also get mail delivered at home, so sending information to the boxes risks double-counting.
As necessary, reminder letters from the bureau will arrive at households between March 16 and 24.
As necessary, reminder postcards will arrive between March 26 and April 3.
As necessary, reminder letters, coupled with paper questionnaires, will arrive between April 8 and 16.
And as necessary, "it's not too late" postcards will arrive between April 20 and 27.
The bureau will not be sending emails or texts, Buck indicated.
Census takers will visit homes from which there have been no online, phone or mail responses between May and July.
The census count ends July 31.
It should take about 12 minutes for the average household to respond to the census, Buck said.
If letter recipients have questions, they can find answers at municipal government offices, at public libraries, churches, schools, senior centers, PA CareerLink and human service agencies, according to Buck.
The bureau may not share individual census information "with anyone: not landlords, law enforcement, immigration … no one. There are NO exceptions," Buck stated.
Moreover, the Census Bureau will not ask for Social Security numbers, bank account or credit card numbers, money or donations or anything on behalf of a political party, according to Buck.
"It's very important," said Logan Township Planning Director Cassandra Schmick of the census effort. "Everyone needs to be counted."
Population, as determined by the census, is one of the bases for money received and paid out by municipalities, influencing liquid fuels allocations from PennDOT, Community Development Block Grant funding and various grants, as well as funding for schools and hospitals, Schmick said.
It's also one of the bases for payments from municipalities to other governmental organizations -- for example, in the case of Logan Township, its assessment payment to the Intergovernmental Stormwater Committee, Schmick said.
A low count can mean that a governmental body receives less than it should, Schmick said.
"(And) if we have to pay, we want it to be right," she said.