Together and by inaction, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have been the most notorious adversaries of the 2020 Census.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are right beyond them.

They’ve led a politically motivated effort to ensure an undercount.

The governor has not allocated a single dollar to support the Census Bureau’s work, while other governors, Democrats specifically, have financially supported outreach efforts for their hard-to-count residents.

That includes people of color, the poor and immigrants, whether they’re in the country legally or illegally. The Constitution calls for all people living in the country to be counted regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, political party or immigration status.

Demographers and other experts expect the data will get Texans more national representation, allowing for their voices to be heard in the form of three more congressional seats.

The 2020 census data will have a long shelf life. The information the census provides will be used to determine the amount of federal dollars that will come to Texas children, businesses, roads, hospitals and schools.

But Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick are willing to risk losing all that to keep Texas in Republican hands.

If Abbott or Patrick have promoted a complete count, they’ve been hard to hear.

Perhaps they need to speak louder, like they have about limiting voting rights or the right of women over their own bodies.

On the census, what we’ve heard from them is absolutely nada.

You can fight back by self-responding to the census without having an enumerator endanger themselves during the coronavirus pandemic by knocking on your door.

If you received written instructions from the census in the mail, it included a code that will allow you to respond online at https://my2020census.gov, or by phone. For English, call 844-330-2020; for Spanish, dial 844-468-2020.

Those who have yet to receive written census instructions by mail — probably because you don’t have a physical address — will have to wait until the bureau resumes operations. Such is the plight of people who live in rural areas and colonias.

The Census Bureau’s operations were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it announced Monday plans to resume work June 1. The bureau also announced it has begun to mail paper questionnaires to households that have not self-responded.

That’s when enumerators could be on the ground, wearing protective gear.

In Bexar County, the bureau had planned to hire about 2,000 enumerators, said local census spokeswoman Ximena Alvarez. As of Monday, that number was still good.

The bureau also on Monday extended the self-response date to Oct. 31. It was originally July 31 and had already been extended to Aug. 14.

That gives us a lot more time to self-respond, and for local governments to work on their self-response rates. The city of San Antonio invested nearly $400,000 to the effort, and the county another $100,000.

The Complete Count Committee reports that census video ads are already appearing on screens at 130 gas pumps in or near hard-to-count census tracts. Later this month, census ads will appear on the back of receipts at Family Dollar and Dollar General stores.

The latest figures show 48.1 percent of households nationally self-responded, according to the most current figures available as of April 12. In Texas, 43.7 percent had self-responded, most online.

Bexar County’s self-response rate came in higher than the state’s at 46.8 percent, with the majority doing so online.

In the 2010 Census, the county’s self-response rate was 67 percent.

But that may not be a good comparison, as the 2020 census started with an online and phone response campaign, and mail-in questionnaires will be sent later, officials say.

That’ll likely to improve the county’s response.

As families continue to #StayHome and #StaySafe, responding to the census can serve as a family activity and a civics lesson, much like taking your children with you to the voting booth.

Families might allow their home-bound teens — or even younger children — to respond to the census questions for you, with some supervision.

For the Census Bureau, m ore adjustments lie ahead. The Census Bureau’s new timeline is likely to require congressional statutory relief. The bureau is required to deliver apportionment and redistricting numbers to Congress in December.

Given the new timelines, that deadline looks impossible. Whether Washington will be in the mood to give the bureau more time in an election year is anyone’s guess.

Whenever it’s delivered, the data will be used to determine how many additional congressional seats Texas, and all states, will get.

That process always has been complicated and political. It’s been unfair to people of color, too.

The next Texas Legislature is supposed to convene in January 2021. But no matter the date, it won’t take kindly to data giving more congressional representation to its citizens, especially if that growth is in Latino areas.

With so much up in the air, one of the only actions that Texans can take for the moment is to self-respond to the census.

Just do it. Do it now.

Elaine Ayala is a columnist covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Elaine, become a subscriber. eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala