February 20, 2012 · Print This Article
Afternoon roundtable during the White House Community Action Summit at Lorain County Communiy College
Marcus Atkinson
HispanicOhio.com editor
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Elyria – Amongst many of the issues discussed Saturday during the White House Hispanic Action Summit were the power of the Hispanic vote and the lack of Latino turnout during elections.
One of the roundtable discussions featured representatives from across the state of Ohio, including Cleveland, Lorain, Cincinnati and Toledo. Facilitated by the city of Lorain’s president of council, Joel Arredondo, the voter roundtable discussed how to reach out to young voters, discussed why Latinos do not vote, and searched for solutions to low voter turnout.
Arredondo repeated a statement he made in a morning session “Hispanics need to get involved, get educated and vote.”
Members of the League of United Latino American Citizens (LULAC) from Cincinnati voiced concerns that some Latinos are afraid to express themselves politically, Angie Valencia, a LULAC member sited fear as a main reason for lack of voter turnout. Those from Toledo stated the Latino population is so small; some question whether their votes really make a difference. That argument may be hard to counter considering recent Pew Hispanic Research statistics which show there are about 140 thousand eligible Hispanic voters in Ohio, which makes up 2 percent of Ohio’s eligible voters.
“Latinos are very mobile,” said a representative from Toledo when asked how to get Hispanics to register to vote. “Some register but don’t re-register when they move.”
Social media such as Facebook and twitter were mentioned as vehicles to attract young Latinos to be more active in the electoral process, whether it be voting or running for political office.
Canvassing the community was also a key topic.
“We go to non-profit organizations, we go to schools, we go to small corner stores,” said Nick Torres, voter engagement director with Ohio Voice, a voter registration organization whose mission is to increase voter turnout despite party affiliation.
When Torres was asked if he went into churches, an obvious place to reach Latinos he responded saying “yes but some pastors and churches are afraid they will lose their non-profit status. We have to tell them we are not promoting any particular candidate or issue.”
Another idea was to have parents go along with there children door to door asking people to register.
“Just like the girl scouts do when they sell cookies” said Torres. “It’s hard to tell a six-year-old no.”
The next election in Ohio will take place in a few weeks, March 6,
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Article source: http://hispanicohio.northcoastnow.com/2012/02/20/white-house-summit-asks-why-dont-hispanics-vote/
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