At a recent voter fair at Placita Olvera, Carmen Gutierrez practiced punching her ballot in a mock polling booth and received information about the state's propositions.
Though she has lived in the United States for more than a decade, Gutierrez became a new citizen only in September and registered to vote earlier this month. She said she is eager to vote in the presidential election.
"There are a lot of Latinos here," said Gutierrez, who is originally from Mexico. "We have to make our voices heard."
Hundreds of thousands of new citizens like Gutierrez are registering to vote in California and around the nation in time to cast ballots Nov. 4. In Los Angeles County, about 60,000 new citizens have registered to vote since January, according to the county registrar. In all of last year, about 34,000 new citizens registered.
In an effort to get new citizens registered and to the polls, community groups are walking precincts, conducting phone banks, holding forums and distributing multilingual voter guides. The Ya es Hora, ¡Ve y Vota!, (It's Time, Go Vote!) campaign aims to involve Latino immigrants in the electoral process and force politicians to listen. But first, many of the new citizens need help with the logistics, such as filling out registration forms and finding polling places.
"A lot of people in the community are ready to participate in the civic life of our country, but often they don't know how the process works," said Ben Monterroso, executive director of the Mi Familia Vota organization.
The nonpartisan campaign is the next phase of a movement that started in 2006, when immigrants nationwide marched for immigrant rights. Many held signs saying, Ahora marchamos, manana votamos (Now We March, Tomorrow We Vote).
Building on the momentum from the marches, community organizers helped get record numbers of eligible green-card holders to apply for citizenship. In fiscal years 2006 and 2007, about 1.36 million legal immigrants were naturalized, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Now groups are trying to turn that energy into political power, working to increase new Latino voter turnout throughout the country.
"It's just the third leg on the journey, after the marches and the citizenship push," said Holli Holliday, executive director of the We Are America Alliance. "We actually got to the 'Tomorrow We Vote' part."
Holliday said the We Are America Alliance has registered more than 400,000 people in 14 states.
