Montana One Of The Few States In The Country To Resume Limited Census Operations

The U.S. Census Bureau announced this week that Montana will be one of the few states in the nation to resume update leave operations this week.

Update leave is a census operation that delivers census questionnaires directly to you in mainly rural and remote areas of the country. Montana has among the highest percentage of update leave in the country. During this operation, census employees will leave census packets on doors. They will have Census identification and be wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and practice social distancing for their safety and yours. This affects the tribal nations in Montana as well as people who live on rural routes or get their mail via PO Box.

Census staff will continue to work with the tribal, state and local partners to secure a complete and accurate count. Census employees will abide by all state health directives and local regulations as well as work in conjunction with our tribal leaders to safely deliver these census packets to members.

Montana’s self-response rate continues to hover just below 50 percent at 48 percent as of Monday, May 4. The absence of update leave operations, originally slated to begin in late March through early April, has kept many Montanans from receiving their formal invitation to respond or a paper census form.

The Census is easy, safe and important. Montanans can fill out their form online , by phone at 844-330-2020, or by sending their paper forms back to the bureau.

For more information on the 2020 Census, visit www. 2020census.gov.

A full list of the offices that will first re-open and update leave estimates is here: https://2020census.gov/content/ dam/2020census/news/ acos-reopen.pdf.