The Massachusetts congressional delegation has called on the U.S. Census Bureau to release localized data on door-knocking efforts for the decennial count in the Bay State, saying refusing to do so prevents Massachusetts from being accurately and fairly counted.

The census website states 99.9% of Massachusetts residents have been accounted for as of Tuesday with 30.7% being reached through the Non-Response Followup operation (NRFU), commonly known as door-knocking efforts.

Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said he suspects the 99% is inaccurate, but the U.S. Census Bureau has refused to provided localized data that would show the census tracts, or even the communities, where door-knocking hasn’t worked. Without the data, Galvin’s office cannot detect potentially undercounted pockets before the count ends, including historically undercounted areas where older residents, communities of color and immigrants live.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark sent a letter, co-signed by the rest of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, calling on U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the census, to share the disaggregated data with state officials.

“By refusing to provide access to localized data on enumeration, federal census officials are preventing the commonwealth from ensuring a fair and accurate census count,” the letter states. “As the nation’s leading provider of quality data, we call upon the U.S. Census Bureau to immediately provide localized data to the Secretary of the commonwealth in order for the state to ensure an inclusive and complete census count.”

Galvin, the census liaison, told MassLive last month he requested data from the federal agency to no avail. Census officials did tell him which communities are at risk of being undercounted,

As of last month, they were Brockton, Boston, Fall River, Lawrence, Lynn, New Bedford and Worcester.

The letter also suggests Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke and Pittsfield could be at risk of an undercount.

Without the data, however, Galvin said his office struggles to truly grasp the scope of the undercount and the neighborhoods at most risk.

An undercount means Massachusetts could lose out on federal funding for those regions, which are crucial for infrastructure improvements, education and responses to emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic. An undercount could also affect whether Massachusetts keeps its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, though some elected officials say the Bay State likely won’t lose representation.

Federal courts blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to end the count in September. The Trump administration is appealing the rulings to the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration is also looking to exclude immigrants without legal status from the apportionment, which has sparked multiple lawsuits fighting those efforts.

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Original story here.