Nov. 19, 2019

One man works from within to promote participation in the 2020 Census. The other man works from the outside to promote – participation in the 2020 Census.

It was one of those conversations where two people are not sniping at each another but jointly targeting resident apathy and public misunderstanding – from slightly different perspectives, of course.

George Grandy, regional director for the Census, laid out how officials plan to backstop the first use of online census filings with tried-and-true knocking on doors where the online tools don’t produce filings.

Dawkins, a grassroots organizer with deep experience in getting out the vote, said he was using all the tools at his organizations’ disposal to prompt participation. Only if the Census ultimately fails in its mission to count everyone would he start criticizing Census officials’ efforts.

The morning Forum began with a presentation by Charlottean Winston Robinson about how he moved from holding parties for his peers, to holding parties for his peers with a purpose – in the most recent case, providing information on how even families strapped for cash should explore homeownership as a way to improve their longterm economic situation.

In the video below, Robinson’s presentation begins at minute 10:35. ActionNC political director Robert Dawkins joins him at 15:09. Census Regional Director George Grandy makes a short presentation at 20:10, then the questions and answers begin, with a bit of hilarious testimony from Dawkins about how to succeed in the business of knocking on doors – even in gang neighborhoods.