Before the Secretary of Commerce announced the new target Census data of Oct. 5, the NALEO Education Fund worked hard to raise awareness to get people in Kern counted by the former Sept. 30 deadline. 

The NALEO Education Fund held a “Make Yourself Seen, Heard, and Counted in 2020” webinar in an effort to get people counted. There were several speakers touching on the subject of not only getting counted for Census but voting as well.

Lizette Escobedo with NALEO did a presentation explaining how the different stages of the Census work and that right now census takers are going door to door to enumerate those who have not yet responded to the 2020 Census. She also made sure to talk about how to verify a worker and what they do along with community concerns. 

To verify someone is a Census taker, they should have an ID badge with the following information: name, photograph with a U.S Department of Commerce watermark, and an expiration date. 

Census takers knock on doors between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., have an iPhone for accessing the questionnaire, and are wearing COVID-19 protection. 

There have been a number of hurdles the Census Bureau has had to take on throughout the year, and the speakers spoke of the many challenges they have encountered throughout the year. Some challenges they mentioned are the attempt to get a citizenship question added to the questionnaire, the extended timeline being cut short and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The citizenship question is not on the questionnaire and a census taker will not ask about it. 

Voting was another important topic during the webinar. Julian Cabrales with NALEO talked about the importance of the Latino vote and encouraged everyone to get out and vote. 

It is estimated that 14.6 million Latinos will vote in this upcoming election, which is 15 percent more than last time. 

The speakers were calling on people to register to vote as soon as possible and vote by mail in October or in person in November.