This Tuesday we celebrated National Voter Registration Day — a nonpartisan, country-wide civic holiday to encourage people to vote, first observed in 2012. This year, Latinos are expected to be the nation’s largest non-white ethnic group to vote in the presidential elections, with 32 million elligible to vote. With this record-breaking projection, National Voter Registration Day is especially important for Latinos.
The National Voter Registration Day intends to not only encourage those eligible to register, but also to mobilize volunteers and educate citizens on voting practices. This year, voting day will be different because of the unprecedented pandemic. Many states are making voting by mail more accessible in order to accommodate for safe distanced-voting, since states have different rules on voting this year.
As the coronavirus pandemic has developed, the stark inequalities in our country have made more apparent the need for adequate policies that will help Latino communities. A recent Pew report found that Latinos are more concerned with the economy and healthcare this election than other groups, and that these two ideas are at the forefront of our mind while filling out the ballot.
As Latinos mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who advocated for access to accessible healthcare, and look toward the possibilities of economic and community recovery post COVID-19, many advocates say the vote is more important now than ever. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the case that Latino communities register and go out to vote this year, writing that our first priority is to make sure to secure electoral college victory.
Our first, no 1 priority is to do everything possible to secure electoral college victory in Nov.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 19, 2020
This is the fight of and for our lives. That has always been true, & it becomes more true each day.
Opponents of democracy need your resignation to succeed. Don’t give it to them.
To find out about registration status, and how to vote, people can go to the nonpartisan site, nass.org/can-i-vote. The site has bilingual instructions to find out how to register and how to vote in each state.
Other important links:
