Latino leaders Friday announced their final push to register nearly a million Latino voters nationwide for the November presidential election. The drive is part of a growing effort to realize the potential of the estimated 13 million eligible Latino voters in the U.S.--nearly half of whom are not registered.
Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a leader in the Latino Vote 2000 drive, said 1.5 million eligible Latino voters in California alone are still not registered--a significant stumbling block to exercising their influence at a time when both parties' presidential candidates are courting Latino votes as never before.
Gonzalez said Latinos have a great opportunity to have an impact in swing states with significant Latino populations, such as Illinois and Florida.
About 7.2 million Latinos are registered to vote nationwide, Gonzalez said at a Los Angeles news conference. Between 4.8 million and 5.8 million of those eligible to vote are not registered, he said. The drive's goal is to have 8 million Latinos registered before the November elections, he said.
"We're the soccer moms of 2000," Gonzalez said, referring to a voting bloc targeted in the last presidential election. "This is the only electorate that is growing significantly. The vote that is spiraling upward and reaching critical mass is the Latinos."
But some analysts say the Latino electorate is only beginning to flex its political muscle. Latinos cast 4.9 million ballots in the 1996 presidential election, according to figures provided by Gonzalez's group. The Latino voter drive hopes to get more than 6 million Latinos to the polls this fall.
One of the dozens of local officials who will be mobilizing volunteers for the registration drive is Ramon Gomez, a city councilman in the Santa Cruz County community of Watsonville, where 3,500 of the 11,000 registered voters are Latino.
To reach the 2,500 eligible Latinos who are not registered, volunteers will set up booths at shopping malls and supermarkets. There will be "motor registrations," with volunteers driving through communities with carloads of registration forms.
"We're trying to expand democracy to all Americans and make sure they exercise their right to vote," Gomez said.
