The Valley’s largest non-profit organization, RGV Food Bank hosted a mini-information summit to encourage participation in this year’s U.S. 2020 Census.
Executive assistant of the Census Division from Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez’s office was Andrea Gonzalez who shared the historically “hard-to-count” region and its effects it could have. “The Census is important because the data collected during the upcoming 2020 Census will define our region for at least a decade and impacts federal funding, U.S. representatives seats, state and legislature districts, school districts, voting precincts and calculation of education, unemployment rates and business location decisions - it affects our economy,” she said.
The fear of the virus spreading comes as election day is right around the corner.
The Hidalgo County Elections Department says they will be sending poll workers that are sick home on Tuesday.
They have hand sanitizers available at each station and will be cleaning their voting equipment with a cloth and alcohol-based solution throughout the day.