Census officials in Collin County partner to make sure count is accurate

McKINNEY – Officials in Collin County are partnering with local groups to make sure the Census count for 2020 is as accurate as possible.

The results of an inaccurate count can be far-reaching.

“Growing up, my schools never had enough books. We also had temporary buildings because of overcrowding, and the streets and highways were always under construction,” Laura Martinez, head of product and marketing design in Capital One’s Plano-based Auto Refinance division, told the Dallas Morning News. “Over time, it became clear that the community had severely underestimated the number of people who lived in the area, and I now realize that a more accurate census count would have solved a lot of these problems.”

A count of the U.S. population is taken every 10 years. Martinez first became involved in the Census count in 2010. Census workers are paid by the U.S. Census Dept. as temporary employees, but volunteers also take part. 

An accurate count including the state's immigrant population is also seen as crucial to the effort. Determined to make Collin County’s 2020 census count as accurate as possible, Martinez recently led an interactive workshop for the Collin County Business Alliance in partnership with the Communities Foundation of Texas.

CCBA created its “Collin County Counts” initiative. The CCBA has joined forces with count committees in several other Collin County cities, chambers of commerce, school boards and representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Barbara Baffer is a member of CCBA’s board of directors.

“The Census Bureau will accept online responses for the first time, making it much easier for everyone to participate in the count,” she told the Dallas Morning News. “People can also visit the Collin County Counts website, which shows how to share information about the census in very simple ways. It also includes business resources that can be leveraged to communicate the importance of a complete count in the 2020 census.”

For information people are encouraged to visit the Collin County website at www.collincountycounts.com.