The Door-To-Door Grind to Lift Latino Voter Turnout
In Nevada, one group is working toward a singular goal that’s separate from both presidential candidates.
By David Catanese | Senior Politics Writer Oct. 24, 2016, at 9:38 a.m.
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What makes Vota different than other groups -- and both presidential campaigns -- is that as a tax-exempt "civic engagement organization," it is a fiercely nonpartisan entity operating in an emotionally-wrenching political environment with a Republican nominee whose central campaign promise is to erect an impenetrable wall on the Mexican border and forcibly remove an unspecified number of undocumented immigrants.
Nonetheless, their field workers do not inquire about who their targets are inclined to vote for. They do not recommend or instruct them how to vote. Their goal remains singularly focused: To simply increase the number of Hispanics that vote.
"Campaigns tend to target high propensity Latino voters, or high propensity voters. That is not our job," says Ben Monterroso, Vota's executive director. "Our job is to target low propensity Latino voters because that is how we grow the electorate. The same people continue voting, we gonna get the same results."
Mi Familia Vota originated in California following the 1994 passage of Proposition 187, an initiative aimed to deny undocumented workers public benefits. It now operates around-the-year in six states and 14 cities.
"People like to say, California changed," Monterroso says. "No, no, no. We changed California."
Chaparro, who came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico with her family but was granted legal status through President Ronald Reagan's 1986 amnesty law, is one of 70 current staffers Vota has in the Las Vegas area attempting to prod and nudge more Latinos to the ballot box.
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http://www.usnews.com/news/the-run-2016/articles/2016-10-24/the-door-to-door-grind-to-lift-latino-voter-turnout?src=usn_run2016