The National Council of La Raza recently launched a national campaign called "Mobilize to Vote" (M2V) to increase the number of young Latino voters by 180,000 by November's presidential election.
The goal is to bring this population's political power closer to their demographic presence in the country.
The president of the organization, Janet Murguía, said that each year half a million Hispanics will reach 18 years of age, and of those, 93 per cent are eligible to vote. This campaign will be the first of a series of efforts to increase the political participation of this population.
"Today, nine million Latinos who could vote are not registered to do so," Murguía said in a press conference.
She said NCLR will work with other community organizations past November to register on million new voters.
Murguía stressed that this effort will be a bipartisan one involving legislators and public officials.
However, as part of the NCLR's educational efforts "we also want to inform voters about the positions of the politicians so voters can elect those who best represent their interests" and identify those whose stance does not.
Clarissa Martínez de Castro is director of civic participation at NCLR and will be directing the voter campaign. She said that the goal of 180,000 will be focused in those states where Latinos have the potential to determine the winner, such as North Carolina and Indiana, as well as Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada y New Jersey.
"This campaign also will confront those measures that try to make it more difficult for Latinos to vote," said Martínez de Castro, who added that a structure is being developed to report voting irregularities on Election Day.
She said that the campaign will be carried out by local community groups and volunteers going door to door.
Martínez de Castro said that the growth in the number of Latino voters will force many politicians, particularly Republicans, to rethink their positions hostile to this demographic block, and support policies such as immigration reform.
NCLR acknowledged that the age of their target population and their great mobility will be challenges to achieving the goal of registering new voters.
However, Murguía said the outcome of the next presidential election is critical to issues of importance for this population, including the economy, immigration, education and health care.
The campaign also will work with its affiliate organizations in other states, such as California and Texas, as well in a program that aims to register voters through the Internet.
"Latino political participation favors the development of national agenda that benefits all Americans," she said. "The only way to maintain Latinos informed and active in these critical debates is to register them and make sure they vote on Election Day."
editorial@mienlace.com
This story was published in Enlace, the weekly Latino newspaper of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
