CHARLOTTESVILLE (WINA) – Albemarle White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek on Morning News urges area residents — not just in Albemarle County, but the entire Thomas Jefferson Planning District region — to not wait for an invitation, and go ahead and answer the 2020 Census questionnaire. Mallek says it’s extremely important for each area resident to be counted in order for us to receive our share of state and federal dollars. Mallek says the Census has shut down its field operations because of COVID-19 until at least late May — and the Census does not mail to post office boxes or rural route numbers. She says that’s a significant number of residents in our area.

Mallek says, “One of the items that comes up to every elected official everywhere is potholes, road conditions, and safety. Those are federal highway dollars. Federal highways dollars are allocated on population, as well as road miles.”

She says the federal funds are also provided to education, environment, food stamps, agriculture, etc.

“It is one of the reasons people in southwest and some of the less densely populated areas in Virginia feel very left out right now. Because they’re seeing what Senator (Creigh) Deeds (D-Bath County) calls the balkanization of Virginia — where the crescent and the really populated cites are gaining a lot more control and a lot more influence because their population way outweighs the rest of us.”

Mallek says, “I put Albemarle in the ‘rest of us’ category because we are pretty small in comparison to Fairfax’s 1.5-million people.”

“I really, really encourage everybody to pick up this phone and take 5 minutes of your time to get this done because it will help us for the next 10 years.”

Mallek says she wrote the Census after asking if people had gotten their Census invitation. She found some people got 3 or 4 when she had received none. The full local Census response email follows:

“U.S. Census Bureau does not deliver 2020 Census invitations to post office boxes.

All Virginians can now fill out their 2020 Census online, by phone or by mail – even without receiving an official invitation to participate. The 2020 Census is available to fill out now online at my2020census.gov, by phone at 1-844-330-2020, or via mail if a household has received a paper questionnaire.

With the U.S. Census Bureau suspending all field operations across the nation due to COVID-19, it is critical that residents of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District region self-respond to the 2020 Census questionnaire, even if the household has not received their 12-digit Census ID code.

Many members of our community do not receive mail at a traditional household address, which leaves many areas at risk of being undercounted because the U.S. Census Bureau does not mail to post office boxes or rural route addresses . The U.S. Census Bureau will not be in contact with these households until they restart their door-to-door operations in late May. This means a large portion of our region will not receive U.S. Census Bureau communication or reminders to fill out their form until much later than planned.

Anyone who has not received their Census ID can simply start the online questionnaire and then select the option “If you do not have a Census ID, click here” or call in their response. This option will ask one additional question about where a respondent will be on April 1, 2020 and then participants will be able to fill out the remainder of their form.

Counting everyone in Virginia is critical because it determines the state’s share of federal funding over the next decade and it shapes local voting districts, and Congressional representation.”