Organizers aim to get marchers onto voter rolls

Leslie Berestein
STAFF WRITER
April 9, 2006
www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060409/news_1n9vote.html
People who participate in the march for immigrant rights today will see as many as 100 voter registration volunteers working the crowd downtown, along with voter registration tables at the start and end points.

“What we are saying is 'march today, vote tomorrow,' ” said Jessica Nolan, a spokeswoman for the march's organizers, which include community, labor and religious groups.

After a month of similar marches nationwide that have drawn hundreds of thousands of participants, the organizers of the San Diego march are seeing what some political observers see: the potential to harness the energy present in those protests and convert it into Latino voting power.

“I think it is very clear that it has the potential for mobilizing both nonregistered U.S. citizen Latinos as well as pushing Latinos to naturalize,” said Harry Pachon, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a nonprofit policy research organization in Los Angeles that focuses on Latino issues.

If this momentum can be captured, political observers say, it could boost Latino voter participation.

A postelection study in November 2004 showed that about 1.6 million more Latinos voted in that national election than in 2000. But their participation still lagged behind that of white or black Americans, according to a report released last year by the Pew Hispanic Center. Forty-seven percent of Latinos who were of voting age and U.S. citizens went to the polls, compared with 67 percent of whites and 60 percent of blacks eligible to vote.

There are a number of reasons for this, including low voter registration rates. To begin with, there are fewer Latinos who are eligible to vote than noneligible ones. According to the Pew report, out of roughly 41 million Latinos living in the United States in 2004, only 16.1 million were eligible to vote because the rest were either noncitizens or were under 18 at the time.

But even out of the 16.1 million who were eligible, only 9.3 million were registered. And of those, only 7.6 million actually cast ballots. This means that the majority of Latinos who could have voted in 2004, 8.5 million people, didn't.

Political experts point to several factors for this lack of participation. Immigrants from countries with unstable political systems, as many are in Latin America, tend mistrust government in general. And, as also is the case with many native-born Americans of lower socioeconomic status, basic survival often takes precedence over politics.

“Politics, for most Americans, is not an everyday-life issue,” Pachon said. “It is not something that affects you personally. That is why these demonstrations are so interesting, because what it shows is that immigration is not an academic issue; it is a genuine issue on the Hispanic immigrant side. You are talking about your friends, relatives, neighbors.”

In the wake of the mid-1990s furor over illegal immigration that swept California, record numbers of Latinos became voters. On the table in 1994 was Proposition 187, a state measure that threatened to cut off undocumented immigrants from public education, health care and other social services.

The measure, endorsed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, unleashed a barrage of protests, including student walkouts. It was approved by voters, including some Latinos, but was struck down in the courts.

In the aftermath, there was a dramatic increase in Latino voter participation in California, especially among younger voters and new citizens. Between 1990 and 2000, Latino voters went from representing 10 percent of the state's electorate to representing 16 percent.

In 2000, a California Field Poll study showed that nearly half the Latinos on the state's voter rolls had registered to vote since 1994.

Overwhelmingly, those new voters sought to distance themselves from Wilson's Republican Party. Pachon said Los Angeles County voter registration records showed that between 1994 and 1998, about 88,000 Latinos registered as Democrats while 11,000 registered as Republicans.

“The provocation ended up being even more substantial because the thing was actually passed,” said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington, D.C., research organization. “What that showed is that immigration can be a mobilizing issue for Hispanic voters in a negative sense, that they will respond to a perception that the entire population is being demonized, or that the measures are excessively harsh.”

This is, in essence, why Latinos and others have taken to the streets lately, protesting a House of Representatives bill approved in December that among other things would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, currently a civil offense. The measure, H.R. 4437, also would make it a crime to help undocumented immigrants stay in the country, a sore point for churches and charities.

Some observers see clear parallels between Proposition 187 and the House bill, which was proposed and supported by House Republicans, and its possible political aftermath, even though President Bush captured as much as 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004.

“Anybody who lived through the 187 experience can tell you it really backfired,” said Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C. “I think Republicans should be shaking in their shoes over what is happening now. President Bush made significant gains among Latino voters in both of his elections, and all of that is at risk.”

But while the potential is there for a nationwide mobilization of Latino voters, not all of the same factors present in 1994 exist today, Suro said.

In the mid-1990s, large numbers of formerly undocumented immigrants who had obtained amnesty after 1986 were becoming eligible for citizenship, and they joined the ranks of newly registered California voters in the mid-1990s.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, recent naturalization numbers have been much lower: More than 1 million people became U.S. citizens in 1996, compared with 537,151 in 2004.

Also, the political fallout may depend on what compromise, if any, is reached between the House and the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee proposed a milder immigration bill that would allow many undocumented immigrants to eventually earn citizenship, but the measure hit a roadblock Friday. It's unlikely that a compromise will be reached this year, some observers say, and if this proves to be the case, the momentum could dissipate.

“The lack of closure is itself a big hindrance to sustaining this movement,” said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego. “It's not like Proposition 187, where it was passed, the state tried to implement it and there was a showdown in the federal courts.”

It is because this momentum can fade that potential voters must be registered while they are still angry and protesting in the street, observers say.

Armando Navarro, a UC Riverside ethics professor who helped organize a massive march in Los Angeles two weekends ago, said he would have liked to have seen more voter registration at that event, which attracted roughly 500,000 people.

“We now have to move into a much more organized voter registration and political organization effort,” Navarro said. “You cannot base a movement on a perpetual cycle of demonstrations and marches.”

To that end, organizers of today's march made a decision to focus more intensely than originally planned on registering eligible voters.

Organizers are expecting between 10,000 and 50,000 participants.

“In the process of planning this event, it became clear that we had to do more than get them in the street and make noise,” said Matt O'Connor, a spokesman for Local 2028 of the Service Employees International Union in San Diego, which is one of the organizers of the march. “It's going to be a missed opportunity if we don't do that.”

we are soooo fucked

I'm curious what the requirements are to become a registered voter in CA, AZ, NM, and TX.  

Quoted: I'm curious what the requirements are to become a registered voter in CA, AZ, NM, and TX.

in AZ there was a requirement to show proof of citizenship with prop 200.  however our transsexual dyke pos governor has stalled it on the grounds of "racism"

Quoted: Quoted: I'm curious what the requirements are to become a registered voter in CA, AZ, NM, and TX.   in AZ there was a requirement to show proof of citizenship with prop 200.  however our transsexual dyke pos governor has stalled it on the grounds of "racism"

Interesting....I thought the states HAD TO comply with FEDERAL LAW?

I dont recall ever having to show any proof of citizenship to register to vote.  do you?

nonregistered U.S. citizen Latinos

Call them what they are, "ILLEGAL ALIENS"

Quoted: I dont recall ever having to show any proof of citizenship to register to vote.  do you?

Any time I deal with the .gov they seem to know EXACTLY who I am

This is a quote from a poster at FreeRepublic.com:

"This is America's civil rights battle for the 21st century," says Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition, .... she says, but Monday's actions are really about "whether or not America will continue to be what it has always been - a nation of immigrants."
1) They are NOT IMMIGRANTS, they are ALIEN INVADERS.

2) YES! This IS about civil rights. This is about the CIVIL RIGHTS of AMERICAN CIVILIANS! who are here legally being destroyed and thwarted by ILLEGAL sneaks who come to steal from the economy of the CIVILIANS.


3) America has NEVER been a nation of ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS! It has always been a nation of law-abiding citizens who fought long and hard to acquire their rights of cizienshiop and the right to assimilate into this nation.


ELLIS ISLAND was not established for ILLEGAL ALIENS!


It is PRECISELY because the politicians have allowed this problem to go so long that it is becoming intractable and perhaps lead to overt civil war! These aliens are DEMANDING that laws be changed and that we PAY for their demands, ONLY because there are so many of them."


The rhetoric is somewhat heated and I am not sure about leading to civil war, but nothing surprises me anymore.

Would it be a civil war if it is between Citizens and illegals?

MILITARIZE THE DAMN BORDER ALREADY
STOP ALL WELFARE PAYMENTS TO ILLEGALS
NO CITIZENSHIP FOR CHILDREN OF ILLEGALS
STOP SPITTING ON OUR COUNTRY AND CONSTITUTION

Quoted: I dont recall ever having to show any proof of citizenship to register to vote.  do you?

No. However, in my state we have the motor-voter registration thing which registers you to vote when you renew your registration.

And we all know illegals have driver's licenses, don't we? Obtained illegal of course, which they got with their fraudulent social security card, no less.  

Shouldn't those people be arrested for conspiracy to commit voter fraud?!!

Quoted: Shouldn't those people be arrested for conspiracy to commit voter fraud?!!

Yup, they are promoting illegal voting by illegals, that used to be a crime

eta: their slogan is "march today, vote tomorrow"

Voter Fraud?  

Those who register the voters= Conspiracy to commit voter fraud.

Quoted: Voter Fraud?   Those who register the voters= Conspiracy to commit voter fraud.

Yup, just another law that illegals AND our .gov overlords are ignoring

Racist fucks.  

When one of my sisters tried getting her license when she was 16, my parents had to go to the court house because some official stamp wasn't on her birth certificate I guess.

But there were immigrants in the line who didn't have a birth cert and/or SS card and they got their with no problem!

I really am worried to see where all this protesting is heading towards to.

krfan1

I love how now it's "Latinos" and not Mexicans, like the people that are actually sneaking in here illegally by the millions.......

I guess the more they can generalize and blow steam up the sheeple's asses, the more people they can get to hate those of us who want a goddamn wall on the border.




Fuckin bleeding heart libtard press......  Makes me sick.

Quoted: I'm curious what the requirements are to become a registered voter in CA, AZ, NM, and TX.

I would say a pulse but I am not sure that's even required.

Pissed off that the law might consider you a felon for being here illegally?  Guess what?

YOU ALREADY ARE A FELON IF YOU COMMIT VOTER FRAUD.

Quoted: Quoted: I'm curious what the requirements are to become a registered voter in CA, AZ, NM, and TX.   I would say a pulse but I am not sure that's even required.

I think the dems actually PREFER it if you don't have a pulse(or a brain)