Patricia Woodward, director of the 2020 Census program in Oklahoma, has issued an appeal for all state residents to fill out their census forms. The deadline to respond is Sept. 30.

State Sen. Darcy Jech of Kingfisher joined the effort urging residents to complete and send in their census forms in his column (Page 5) this week, commenting:

“I’d like to encourage each of you to stop what you’re doing and complete the 2020 census. Time to fill out the questionnaire is quickly running out, and if we don’t get a complete and accurate count of our population, we’ll miss out on crucial federal funding that is allocated for schools, hospitals, roads and more. Each person not accurately counted by the census can cost the state nearly $17,000 over the next decade, so we must all make it a personal responsibility to complete the census and encourage our family, friends and neighbors to do the same.”