Legendary activist gets out Latino vote - Dolores Huerta

“Today, Huerta, who tours the country constantly talking about Hispanic issues and seems to be powered by batteries — she has been married three times and has 11 children — is expending the same energy trying to get the Latino population of California registered to vote. They are mainly Mexican, and they make up a third of the total state population of 35.3 million. As Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California notes, “Latino voters in California are going to have more impact than they have ever had before, because the California primary has been moved up [to Feb. 5], and there are real competitive races on both the Democratic and Republic sides.”

Latino participation will affect Democrats more, because 57 percent of those who vote do so as Democrats. In fact, 20 percent of the Democratic votes in California are cast by Latinos, vs. the 8 percent cast by them for Republicans. And there are thousands of eligible Latino voters who are not yet registered, something Huerta is working on, as is Javier Gonzalez of the group Sol. They are rushing, because the California primary was moved from its original date in June.”

Stumble it! | |