Thread: Latino activists focus on getting out vote

Latino activists focus on getting out vote

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY ---- With just four days remaining before Tuesday's election, local Latino activists are focusing on getting out the vote.

In Vista, 15 volunteers for the campaign of City Council candidate Tina Jillings will be walking precincts, mostly in Latino neighborhoods, to encourage people to vote, one of the men with her campaign said Thursday.

Jillings, who helped found a local human rights coalition in the wake of three separate fatal shootings of local Latino men the summer of 2005, has been involved in angry confrontations with anti-illegal immigration activists at local rallies.

We'll be walking precincts, in "an effort to show this is another step in the struggle, not only in voting but in running our own candidate," said Fallbrook resident and Latino activist Ricardo Favela.

Latino activists in Escondido are also working to get out the vote, said Consuelo Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Vista Human Rights Committee. On Sunday, a rally is being held in Grape Day Park to encourage people to vote.

At the 1:30 event, organizers will provide information on political candidates and their positions on immigration, so that residents can make informed choices about who will best represent them Martinez said.

Meanwhile, other local Latino activists are reporting mixed results in their voter registration drives with North County Latinos in recent months.

Between early April and the Oct. 23 deadline to register to vote in Tuesday's election, volunteers with the activist group "We are America Coalition," succeeded in signing up 500 to 600 North County Latino residents, group spokesman Pedro Silva said in a Thursday interview.

Silva called the number of new voting registrants a "fair result," citing the fact that many people whom they targeted were not necessarily citizens.

Following the massive protests that swept North County in early April in reaction to proposed changes in immigration law, local Latino activists began pushing for increased voter registration of Latinos as the most effective, mid- and long-term tool for protecting the rights of immigrants.

A possible indicator that Latino voter registration has increased countywide in recent months is a spike in the number of people with Hispanic surnames who are registered to vote.

In June, registrar officials tallied up the number of registered voters living in San Diego County with Hispanic surnames and that number stood at 190,066, a spokeswoman with the San Diego County registrar of voters voter outreach program said Thursday. Another tally was conducted on Sept. 19 and the number had increased to 194,358, an increase of 4,292.

Registrar's office voter-outreach spokeswoman Carmen Lopez said she has been receiving a larger than usual number of requests to help register Latinos to vote at local events in North County in recent months. At the request of the Vista-based activist organization El Grupo, she said she had participated at recent events at the Escondido Swap Meet and at Grape Day Park.

However, longtime Latino activist and Vista resident John Herrera said Thursday that despite its voter registration drive during the last several months, El Grupo, the grassroots organization to which he belongs, has not seen that many Latinos registering to vote.

"We tried to capitalize on the emotional energy that had been generated (by the protests) to increase registration, but we have not seen any great success," Herrera said.

Herrera, who is a long standing member of El Grupo, attributed his group's difficulties in getting people to register to vote to apathy.

"A number of them feel their vote doesn't make a difference, that they don't have any candidates who look like them and will represent their interests," Herrera said.

Vista City Council candidate Jillings, who is Latina, said she believes that as more Latinos become candidates and people see someone who they can relate to, more and more Latinos will get involved in the electoral process.

"They will know they are not wasting their time and will get out and vote for the candidates they feel understand them and will represent their needs," Jillings said.

Jillings and her supporters have opponents, including a vocal Latino organization called "You Don't Speak for Me." The group, which has created a San Diego chapter headed by a Latina immigrant who opposes illegal immigration, has taken issue with the views of Jillings and other pro-immigrant activists.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11 ... 1_2_06.txt

I just called and e-mailed the reporter asking him to do a story on Lupe Moreno and the San Diego chapter of You Don't Speak For Me.

I would suggest that everyone else do the same.

GREAT IDEA, Pine!

.

Good idea pine, just sent email too.