Group hopes to mobilize Latino voters in Weld

In a city where a third of the population is Latino, few of the decisions are made by Latinos. A new group plans to change that.

El Voto Latino will work to register, educate and attract 5,000 Latino voters to the polls next election and increase numbers from there.

"I thought, 'It's past time. We need to find a way to get our gente to vote, to get our people to vote,'" said the group's director, Roberto Córdova.

The non-partisan group is focusing on Greeley right now and hopes to move into every town in Weld County. Still in the early stages, El Voto Latino will focus first on registering voters. The Secretary of State's office has already trained several members to register voters, and Córdova said they would get others trained as well.

About 25 people gathered recently in the basement of Our Lady of Peace Church, 1311 3rd St., for the group's first organizational meeting. Some of them were drawn after the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement office controversy in Greeley. Others said they came because they were frustrated from years of watching decisions made without Latinos' input.

Registration is the first step for the group, but Córdova said there is a big gap between registered voters and actual voters. The group wants to follow up with forums and speakers. Members talked about driving voters to the polls on election days or teaching them about absentee ballots. The end goal is to get Latinos to vote, regardless of the political party or issue.

Denise Hall coordinated an effort to register Greeley Latinos to vote in the 2004 presidential election. The program was sponsored by the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. Hall said in a phone interview it was difficult to get community leaders involved because the project began late and most community leaders had already aligned with political parties and wouldn't work with the non-partisan effort.

She said the entire community needed to get involved and stay involved to make El Voto Latino effective. She said there are a lot of businesses that benefit from Latinos' dollars, and they needed to be involved along with other organizations for the good of the entire city.

"It's all of us." Hall said. "We don't want to live in a society where people are not participating."

Voter education will be one of the challenges for El Voto Latino. Cordova said the group will try to get the word out in the media, at community events and anywhere it can reach voters.

"We have to be creative because most of our people have never voted before and don't know how to vote," he said.

For more information about El Voto Latino, call Diana Liges at 339-5100, Ext. 218, or Roberto Cordova at 353-3281.