Get out the vote!

from Rich Stolz, Reform Immigration FOR America

The elections coming in November will create a new stage in Congress for the continuing drama of immigration reform. The issue of immigration is saturating a number of important elections across the country. Seizing on the importance of these elections, community groups in a number of states are making sure their voices are heard.

This week, many states hit their voter registration deadlines, and a number of them announced encouraging numbers of newly registered immigrant and Latino voters. In Nevada, the Hispanic Institute registered 10,000 new Hispanic voters and in Chicago, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights registered more than 10,000 new immigrant voters through its One Nation, One Dream: Standing for Families campaign. Promise Arizona, a new organization pushing for civic engagement, registered more than 13,000 voters before their registration deadline, successfully exceeding its goals. Now communities across the nation are shifting their attention to get out the vote efforts as we near the Nov. 2nd election.

Getting Out the Vote
Several national organizations, including Democracia U.S.A., the Hispanic Federation, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Mi Familia Vota, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), Voto Latino, and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) held an event this week encouraging Latinos to “Vote for Respect” on November 2nd. The event included musical guests Ozomatli and representatives from the various organizations. Clarissa Martínez De Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns at NCLR explained the effort: “We are urging Latino voters to take a stand for respect and against the attacks on our long and proud history in America. We have an opportunity to show politicians who are blocking progress on issues that matter to our community, as well as those who stand on the sidelines while our community is under attack, that they need to start working toward solutions or get out of the way. These issues matter to all Americans, and fixing our immigration system, jobs, health care, and education is also part and parcel of fixing our economy.”

While advocacy organizations work to encourage voter turnout, analysts and the national media attempt to make sense of recent polling of Latino voters. What’s clear is that immigrant and Latino voters have real power to strongly affect this election. Some polls are indicating that Latino support for Democrats is growing following the recent effort to pass the DREAM Act in Congress. However, other polls show that with all of the negative sentiment toward immigrants and inaction on immigration reform, Latino turnout may be depressed due to frustration with Democratic leadership and the President.

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