Getting Latinos Ready To Vote for the Midterm Elections

We are a few short months away from what is likely the most important election many of us will ever vote in. This isn’t an exaggeration. If you have been following what is happening in Washington and in State Capitals across the United States, you know that many of the most important issues to Latinos—education, immigration, healthcare, to name a few—hang in the balance. That’s why Hispanic Federation has been working to educate, register, mobilize Latino voters through its Civic Engagement Program.

So far this year, we have registered 20,000 voters in Florida and New York, that’s just under half of our goal of 50,000 voters registered before Election Day. This year, given the growing power of Latino voters in places were our community has traditionally had a small electoral presence, we have 75 canvassers to register Latino voters.

“The Latino community is becoming more geographically diverse,” said Hispanic Federation’s Director of Civic Engagement Alejandra Sorto. “Our civic engagement work now reflects that diversity. So while we are working in places such as New York and Florida, we’re also extending our reach into the South, where Latino communities are becoming more important and visible to candidates.”

In addition to our voter education and registration work, this year we have also increased our Get Out the Vote (GOTV) work. In New York State we reached over 53,000 voters across New York City and areas of Long Island and Westchester for the Special Election on April 24th and the Congressional Primary election on June 26th. Using strategies ranging from targeted text-messaging and door-to-door canvassing to bilingual media placements, our goal is to mobilize and engage over 210,000 voters and make sure they make it to the polls this year for key local, state and Federal elections. We are a few short months away from what is one of the most important elections many of us will ever vote in. This isn’t an exaggeration. If you have been following what is happening in Washington and in state houses all across the U.S., then you know that many of our most important issues – education, health care, the environment, to name a few – hang in the balance. It is why we have significantly increased our voter mobilization efforts in key states throughout the country.