National Drive to get more Latino to vote kicks of in Stockton
STOCKTON - A nationwide tour to increase Latino voter registration started Thursday in Stockton.
Organizers are using election issues such as immigration, health care and shrinking public services to drum up support.
The "Todos A Votar (Everyone Votes)" tour kicked off at La Comision Honorifica Mexicana in central Stockton, where members of various Latino groups rallied.
The caravan movement will make several additional stops in the state before traveling east.
San Joaquin County was the first stop. Latinos make up almost 40 percent of the county's total population of 696,000.
"It's a feather in Stockton's (hat)," said Jose Rodriguez, executive director of El Concilio. "It shows the importance of Stockton, not just in California but across the country."
El Concilio, the Council for the Spanish Speaking, is one of the participating agencies in the voter-registration drive.
"This election in November is particularly important for Latino voters," said Eliseo Medina, the international secretary-treasurer of Service Employees International Union. "It's about making ourselves heard."
Medina, a speaker on the tour and a former associate of the late Cesar Chavez, said the Valley was a good place to launch because its large Latino population has been underrepresented at the polls.
And it is a pivotal location. Voting trends historically can go either way on Election Day.
"We want to make sure it isn't underrepresented this year," Medina said.
Because the Stockton area can play such a key role in politics regionally and nationally, Rodriguez said, registered Latino voters should get involved in the issues.
"We will decide who will be elected to the president of the United States," Medina said.
Californians also will decide whether to increase taxes to fund education and public safety, whether to repeal the death penalty and whether to tighten human trafficking and sex slavery laws, among other ballot propositions.
"We cannot allow the dreams of our children to be repealed," Medina said.
Voter-engagement events similar to Thursday's will be in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Colorado and Texas. Organizers hope to sign up 650,000 new voters across the United States.
From Stockton, the caravan travels to Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego before leaving California.
Local organizations plan to hold voter-registration drives throughout the county and to host educational events on proposed legislative changes.
In San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, the goal is to register 2,000 new voters.
"If we do that here ... we will make history," Medina said.