Advocates Push Voter Registration: ‘Democracy Depends on Participation’

By Alexia Faith

The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 8 midterm election is three weeks away. Chicanos Por La Causa, Mi Familia Vota and other groups working to register voters capitalized on National Voter Registration Day to continue their push.

“We know that people are procrastinating,” Joseph García, executive director of Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund, said at an event at the Arizona Capitol last week. The voter-registration deadline in Arizona is Oct. 11, and these groups are trying to spread their message: “Your vote, your voice.”

García called registering to vote “a love letter to the people you love.”

“If you don’t do anything else today, you need to register to vote and make sure someone else is registered to vote,” he said. “That is a love letter in itself: to democracy, to our future, to our community, to our state, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to our children, the list goes on. … Our democracy depends on participation, and it begins at the ballot box.”

“If you don’t do anything else today, you need to register to vote and make sure someone else is registered to vote.”
Joseph García, Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund

Advocacy groups work year-round to register voters and motivate them to go to the polls, but on National Voter Registration Day, they focus on “voter education, registration and expand the (electorate) through citizenship workshops,” said Carolina Rodriguez-Greer, state director for Mi Familia Vota.

Other groups, including Fresh Start Women’s Foundation, the Phoenix Indian Center and Glendale Community College’s Student Leadership Center, held events around the Phoenix area.

“There’s so much riding on this election; we have a lot to win or lose in this election,” said Lydia Guzman, director of advocacy and civic engagement for Chicanos Por La Causa.

Arizona voters can register or update their voter information at servicearizona.com. As of the August primary, there were 4,156,067 registered voters in Arizona, according to the secretary of state.

Alexia Faith is a News Visual Journalist in Phoenix, Arizona. Reproduced with permission by Cronkite News.

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