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Citizens of Rock County, now is not the time to opt out of Census participation

Subhead
If Census takes come knocking, please answer their questions; the health of our community depends on it and we're running out of time to be counted

Census takers are visiting households in Rock County communities to follow up with residents who have not yet participated in the 2020 Census. (See the front-page story)
They’re paid, part-time temporary government employees, but the work isn’t easy.
Gone are the days of door-to-door salesmen and Avon Ladies, and we rarely get a knock from random Girl Scouts for cookie sales. It’s the world we live in, and it isn’t kind to Census door-knockers. Or any door-knockers, for that matter. Especially in a time of pandemic social distancing.
But the work of Census takers is crucially important in order to get every last person counted. The more accurate the count, the more resources for our communities.
Please, Rock County residents, if you haven’t already been counted, there’s still time to do it. The deadline is Sept. 30. And the sooner you do, the less likely you’ll get that knock on the door.
Here’s how to be counted:
•go to 2020Census.gov.
•call 844-330-2020 (seven days a week between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m.).
•fill out and mail back the census form if it was received in the mail.
Responses are confidential and protected by federal law. The Census Bureau does not share responses with any government, or law enforcement, or landlords … no one.  
Minnesota is at risk of losing a representative in Congress if our population doesn’t support it. If that’s not reason enough to be counted, consider that every person counted represents thousands of dollars in federal funds. This includes funding for emergency response services, hospitals and clinics, schools, job training, roads, highways and more.
We may know people who distrust the government and therefore refuse to participate in the Census, and we ourselves may have a healthy distrust of all things government.
But opting out of the count means opting out of the benefits our federal taxes are supporting. This is not the time to ignore the call to action.
 

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