Build America by answering the Census

The push is on to ensure that all Americans are counted in this year’s census.  By ignoring your responsibility to be counted, you not only hurt yourself but your community as well—including hospitals, schools, public transportation, and other parts of the fabric of our lives.  An undercount is likely to cost your community a slice of the dollars that are made available from the federal level.  At this late date Adam Chapman, Oconee County planner, stresses three messages:  The census is still being taken and you can respond online, mail or by phone; if you haven’t responded, enumerators will start coming to your neighborhood next week; and Clemson rising sophomores, juniors and seniors who were on campus or at home last April 1 will need to participate.  Chapman has received the following question:  Should a part time Oconeean fill out the census to reflect that he lives in Oconee?  Here’s Chapman’s answer to that:  “Where was I living on Census Day (April 1, 2020) – The state in which a person resides and the specific location within that state is determined in accordance with the concept of ‘usual residence,’ which is defined by the Census Bureau as the place where a person lives and sleeps most of the time.  This is not always the same as a person’s legal residence, voting residence, or where they prefer to be counted.  This concept of ‘usual residence’ is grounded in the law providing for the first census, the Act of March 1, 1790, expressly specifying that persons be enumerated at their ‘usual place of abode.’”