How the U.S. Census plays out in the next few months presents big implications for Colorado, so add that to the mix of demands for your attention here in the dog days of summer. The question of politics only raises the temperature.

How Colorado is counted, however, could have longer-lasting and more direct impacts on people’s lives than even the presidency, maybe. That’s partly what makes it so interesting that President Donald Trump is trying to leave his permanent imprint on the process.

The practical questions are as big as the political questions, yet it’s more about the tangible matters Colorado could lose.

A little context: The official decennial count of the nation means everything in government. It drives where federal and state dollars wind up for schools, roads, social programs and more.

It’s also inherently political because it’s the way political boundaries are drawn.

Trump is making it even more political.

He doesn’t want undocumented immigrants counted, red meat to a base that gobbled up warnings about rapists and drug dealers, bad hombres and caravans of troublemakers, who didn’t “boo” when the president moved money from the military to his border wall.

While they can’t vote, undocumented people still place needs on government — schools, roads, the size of a political district. Unless the full population is accounted for, local governments don’t have the federal or state money to support their accurate population. A crowded classroom without the dollars it needs affects every child, not just the immigrants.

Reapportionment for seats in Congress is based on the final census count, and that’s where Colorado has the most to lose.

The state’s growth over the past decade means we should pick up a House seat, most likely in east metro Denver. If the lines fall to the south into Douglas County, it could tilt Republican. If it’s in Aurora and east Denver, then add another seat to the Democratic caucus.

If metro Denver can’t get that seat because of a different way of counting, the winner could be a place such as Alabama, which expects to lose a seat from the count. Six of Alabama’s seven seats are solidly Republican.

There was supposed to be less politics than ever when political districts are drawn in Colorado next time around.

A new independent commission, created by Amendment Z in 2018, will do it with balance in mind. That’s different than in the past, when the legislature drew them in tune with the party in the majority.

Fair maps depend on a fair census, free of the same old politics and suspicion.

“This is a critically important process that will literally determine the rules of the game for our democracy for the next decade,” said Republican strategist and former state Senate President Josh Penry, who worked on the ballot measure. “The stakes are very high. And for those who are just fed up with the games, the gridlock and the partisanship, this is a chance to make a real true impact.”

Trump initially wanted census takers to ask people about their immigration status. No dice, said the Supreme Court last year. The maneuver was a way to intimidate immigrants and undercut typically Democratic districts with large Latino communities.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee, sided against Trump, saying the rationale behind the move “seems to have been contrived” and was “more of a distraction” than a threat to voting rights.

When he lost, Trump said he might try to delay the census to take another run at the issue, including a new government database to identify undocumented people. 

The Census Bureau was given a pandemic postponement from July 31 until Oct. 31 to finish the work, but last week the Bureau, likely pressured by the Trump administration, abruptly dialed the date back by a month. That means the bureau will use estimates that critics argue undercount Black and Latino communities. 

Looking at you, east metro.

It’s not just undocumented people who won’t be counted. It will also be those intimidated by a visit from the government, who might have one undocumented family member or just a general distrust of Uncle Sam.

Self-response rates tend to be low in minority communities such as the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and the Bronx in New York, the Washington Post noted.

And therein lies the solution: personal responsibility. In Colorado, 2 out of 3 households answered the census online or by mail.

Tuesday, mask-wearing, clipboard-toting census workers began knocking on doors of those who did not.

Folks who want to avoid that face-to-face can still fill out the census remotely until Sept. 30. 

“It has never been easier to respond to the 2020 Census on your own, whether online, by phone or by mail — all without having to meet a census taker,” said Laurie Cipriano, Colorado’s spokesperson for the census. “We encourage Coloradans to make their voices heard and self-respond as soon as possible.”

The web address is 2020census.gov.

“Cross it off your list today,” Cipriano said.

There’s never been a year that necessitated an online census more, but it’s an idea whose time has come.

The pandemic may have created an opportunity to streamline this massive exercise in bureaucracy. Maybe door-knocking will go the way of the dinosaur, when the world evolves. Only time will tell.