from Southwest Voter Registration Education Project website
Memorandum
To: Concerned Parties
From: Antonio Gonzalez, SVREP
President (www.svrep.org)
Date: Oct 23, 2008
Re: SVREP President’s Report #3 (2008):
Summary
In my September 22 report, I recounted preliminary results of SVREP’s voter registration efforts. Now SVREP is busy conducting nonpartisan voter education and get out the vote activities. This includes fundraising, training, data-basing, phoning, e-mailing, and canvassing new and recently registered voters.
According to reported results SVREP registered about 62,000; LULAC registered about 50,000; Hispanic Federation about 18,000; NALACC about 12,000; and MAPA about 1,500. Some of these were done in partnership with each other (and may be double-counted) so the grand total is an estimated 130,000+ unique registrations!
The Latino vote is clearly influencing the outcome of elections in Nevada , New Mexico and Colorado , per a new study released by the William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI).
While all attention is focused on the unprecedented characteristics of the McCain-Obama Presidential contest, it is important to understand that Latino empowerment will advance no matter who wins. That is because of important elections down-ballot that are influenced by the Latino vote in many states.
A new study by WCVI showed that Sen. Barack Obama would win Nevada , Colorado and New Mexico because of the Latino vote if the elections were today. These three states together with the safe blue states would give Obama the presidency. See http://wcvi.org/data/survey/2008general_preelection.html for the press release. See http://wcvi.org/data/survey/Latinovotertrends2008.pdf for the entire study.
SVREP is currently fundraising to follow up its voter registration with GOTV activities (targeting the 62,000 that registered in its programs). Additionally SVREP is emailing/mailing voter education information to nearly 1 million Latino voters in 11 states . We project raising some $500,000 for these activities.
In particular, SVREP is conducting various combinations of live calls, canvassing, voter education mail and email in Los Angeles , Phoenix , South Texas , Southern Colorado , Southern New Mexico , and South Florida .
In previous reports, I neglected to mention the impressive SVREP GOTV efforts during the March primary in Texas and the June primary in California .
During February and March SVREP contacted some 25,000 Latina voters in Rio Grande Valley in nonpartisan activities that included live phone calls, mail, e-mail, robo-calls and text messages. Some 10,000 Latinas turned-out because of SVREP.
During May and June SVREP and its partner Hermandad Mexicana-Latinoamericana contacted some 20,000 recently registered Latino voters in Long Beach, South Central LA, and Salinas Valley in California utilizing live phones and paid canvassers. Some 8,000 voters were turned out because of this work.
By the beginning of the summer, SVREP coordinators and volunteers in California , Washington , Arizona , New Mexico , Florida , and Texas had registered 22,277 students across more than 200 colleges and high schools through its Youth Vote Campaign.
During summer, the Movimiento 10-12 campaign consisting of SVREP, LULAC, Hispanic Federation, NALACC and MAPA kicked off coordinated activities. While, more detailed results will soon be available currently we know that more than 130,000 new voters were produced by the effort! Notables included Hispanic Federation with about 18,000 voters in 4 states, LULAC with 50,000 in 7 states, MAPA with about 1,500 in California , and NALACC with about 12,000 while working in partnership with SVREP in 2 southern states.
For its part, SVREP implemented its church and community-based program in some 50 communities across California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and Florida registering nearly 40,000 new voters (in addition to its spring Youth Vote campaign).
More than a dozen intensive 1-2 day training events were conducted ( Los Angeles , the Inland Empire , McAllen , Miami , Dallas , Phoenix , Southern Colorado , Albuquerque and El Paso ) during August and early September. Additionally SVREP conducted special leadership trainings for LULAC and HF voter registration coordinators.
SVREP Highlights included registering 12,532 new voters in Miami-Dade, Florida, 9,987 new voters in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and 8,292 new voters in Los Angeles City ( a campaign that will continue through next spring and hopes to reach 30,000).
In total, SVREP registered over 61,835 voters in activities based on neighborhoods, high schools, college campuses, and churches through September 30 representing an investment of $500,000.
|
SVREP Campaign |
Total Registered |
|
YouthVote |
22,581 |
|
Campaign For Communities |
885 |
|
Movimiento 10-12 |
38,359 |
|
|
61,835 |
SVREP voter registration consisted of ten full time regional organizers, 200 full time local coordinators and 2,000 volunteers from over 200 organizations .
Following are the SVREP state totals. In two states ( Florida and
North
Carolina ) SVREP worked in coalition with NALACC and shared results:
|
TX |
23,693 |
|
CA |
16,012 |
|
NM |
4,945 |
|
AZ |
3,025 |
|
CO |
1,347 |
|
FL |
12,532 |
|
WA |
221 |
|
NC |
50 |
|
Subtotal |
61,825 |
A dramatic increase in Latino voting is likely to influence elections in Congressional districts in South Florida , Northern New Mexico , Northern Colorado , and Central Arizona . U.S. Senate races in Colorado , New Mexico , and North Carolina may be influenced. The Latino vote has even made dark-horse candidate for U.S. Senate State Rep. Rick Noriega competitive in Texas . The Texas State House and the Arizona State House may have new majorities (and perhaps Latino Speakers) because of the Latino voter upsurge.
And numerous good initiatives are being lifted up by Latino votes in California and Arizona , while anti-immigrant and exclusionary proposals in Arizona and Colorado in particular are mobilizing passions.
SVREP expects that some 9.5 million Latinos out of 11.4 million registered will cast votes. While the bad economy and unpredictable, topsy-turvy campaigns made this an extra challenging electoral cycle for our institution, they motivated Latinos to participate in great numbers.
I am anxious to report the results for our community in my next report.
Issues a Call for Action to Latino Leaders
July 8, 2008
To All Latino Community Leaders:
After registering more than 25,000 voters in warm-up activities over the last period, it is time for SVREP to ramp up massive community mobilization. We invite all forces in the Latino community (and its allies) to unite and organize nonpartisan voter registration drives that mobilize the Latino vote in the fall elections.
In ten days, organizations and elected officials from 36 states and 13 countries will gather at the 3 rd Annual National Latino Congreso (www.latinocongreso.org) in Los Angeles on July 18-20. At the Congreso, they will launch “Movimiento 10-12” to help raise Latino registration to 12 million, and drive 10 million voters to the polls in November. A successful mobilization will send a powerful message in favor of justice for immigrants, federal action to reactivate the economy, fixing our broken educational system, extending health care to all, and ending the war in Iraq (the top five Latino issues).
SVREP (www.svrep.org) has joined together with LULAC, Hispanic Federation, NALACC, LCLAA, HMLA, MAPA, and hundreds of local organizations and elected officials to launch a coordinated national nonpartisan campaign in more than 20 states to register and turnout 250,000 new voters during summer and fall.
All “Congreso” attendees, as well as all others willing to unite, are invited to join this nonpartisan effort. Below is list of SVREP targeted counties, in which SVREP will provide training, financing, data, media support, materials, and other technical support to community-based coalitions that pledge to mobilize their memberships and volunteers to do neighborhood-based voter registration (and turnout) during August-November. SVREP will invest $3 million towards its portion of the goals (registering and turning out 150,000 voters).
If you are interested in joining this effort, nominating candidates for paid voter registration coordinator positions, want to launch a local coalition, or otherwise help please attend the Latino Congreso (www.latinocongreso.org) or contact us one of our field representatives:
TX/WA/OR: Veronica Hawkins, vhawkins@svrep.org, 800-404-VOTE
Jacquelyn Longoria, jlongoria@svrep.org 800-404-VOTE
NM/CO: Jaime Chavez, jchavez@svrep.org, 505-730-7555
CA/NV: Martin Rodríguez, mrodriguez@svrep.org, 800-222-5654
Ruben Villareal, rvillarreal@svrep.org 800-222-5654
AZ: Adelita Villegas, avillegas@svrep.org, 602-367-1554
FL/GA/NC/VA: Alvaro Fernandez, alfernandez@the-beach.net, 305-308-6079
124 SVREP Target Counties/Regions
(# projects indicated in parenthesis, coalition partners priority communities coming soon)
Arizona (20): Maricopa (11), Pima (3), Pinal (1), Santa Cruz (1), Yuma (1), Cochise (1), Coconino (1), Globe (1)
California (34): Los Angeles (18), Orange (1), San Bernardino (3), Riverside (2), Santa Barbara (2), Ventura (1), Fresno (1), Kern (1), San Diego (2), Imperial (1), San Joaquin (2)
Colorado (11): Pueblo (2), Adams (1), Arapahoe (1), Denver (2), Larrimer (1), Weld (1), San Luis Valley (2), Boulder (1)
New Mexico (14): Bernalillo (2), Dona Ana (2), Santa Fe (1), Taos (1), McKinley (2), Rio Arriba (1), Valencia (1), Chaves (1), Sandoval (1), Eddy (1), Grant (1)
Texas (24): Cameron (5), Hidalgo (10), Dallas (4), Harris (2), Nueces (1), El Paso (1), Bexar (1)
Florida (13): Miami-Dade (10), Hillsborough (1), Orange (2)
North Carolina (1): Eastern NC (1)
Georgia (1): Fulton (1)
Washington (3): Yakima Valley (3)
Oregon (1): Salem-Woodburn area (1)
Nevada (1): Clark (1)
Virginia (1): Northern Virginia (1)