Largest-Ever Latino Online Voter Registration Campaign Launched at SXSW
PRESS RELEASE

Voto Latino and Rock the Vote announced TrendUrVoice Midterm Elections Campaign

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Recently, Voto Latino and Rock the Vote launched TrendUrVoice, the largest-ever online campaign to register Latino voters, at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive and Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Voto Latino Co-Founder and Chairwoman Rosario Dawson joined volunteers on the ground to register Latino Millennials to vote.

TrendUrVoice targets Latino Millennials in a way that speaks their language. Like previous voter registration efforts, this initiative will activate volunteers, celebrities, and media partners. But in keeping with the social media habits of Millennials, TrendUrVoice will also target young people where they already are: online. The campaign will leverage over half a million dollars in culturally-relevant online media buys to target Latino Millennials in southwest states in advance of the 2014 midterm elections. TrendUrVoice is the first voter registration campaign to target Latinos primarily via social media, desktop, and mobile advertising to reach and register Millennials.

Every year, 800,000 Latino Millennials -- the equivalent of a new congressional district -- turn 18 and become eligible to vote. In states like California and Texas, Millennials already make up one-third of Latino voters. Yet there is no ongoing effort to register this demographic year-round, leaving Latino Millennials significantly underrepresented at the polls.

"Latino Millennials are often the gatekeepers to their families," said Voto Latino President and CEO, María Teresa Kumar. "If we can encourage them to participate at the polls, chances are that they are influencing their parents to join them."  Latino Millennials are also the fastest-growing share of the American electorate, and it is crucial for them to have a voice in shaping their country's future. The first step for that is registering to vote.

"TrendUrVoice will tap into the cultural and social lives of this generation of young people and empower them to participate," said Heather Smith, President of Rock the Vote. "It will garner the attention of this generation by tapping into the issues that matter most to them and their communities and fuel that energy to ensure they are casting ballots in November for those that best represent them."

For more information, visit www.trendurvoice.com.

SOURCE  Voto Latino

CONTACT: Yándary Zavala, (801) 682-0816, yandary@votolatino.org; Chrissy Faessen, (703) 582-2777, chrissy@rockthevote.com