Thanks to volunteers, supporters, El Voto Latino takes major steps

El Voto Latino is a Greeley-based community service project whose mission is to encourage the informed and active participation of Latino/a citizens at all levels of government by exercising their right to vote. This project is sponsored by the Greeley League of United Latin American Citizens Council #30005 and has three main objectives: to register 5,000 new Latino/a voters by the 2008 elections; get all Weld Latino/a voters out to vote in every election; and to host an annual bilingual televised candidate forum.

The purpose of this letter is to thank the city of Greeley Human Relations Commission, Greeley City Council members and Weld County commissioners for endorsing this worthwhile project. We also wish to thank the following organizations and businesses for joining El Voto Latino as supporters: Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church; Hispanic Women of Weld County; Latina Women; Center for Peace, Justice and Environment; Greeley Latinos Unidos; Greeley Computer Services; Greeley Printing; the Greeley Tribune,; High Country Beverage/Coors; Jerry's Market; Rocinante Web sites; T&T Concrete; the Wholesale Food Outlet; Radio Tigre 1450; Ben's Furniture, and Loya Insurance Agency.

Last but not least, we wish to thank the more than 100 volunteers who have joined El Voto Latino since our first meeting March 5, including: Charles Archibeque, Carlos Leal, Dick Bond, Julianne Haefeli, Tony Arguello, Pres Montoya, Sandi Elder, Don Coloroso, Cristina Sanchez, Angel Gomez, May Martinez Hendershot, Art Terrazas, Vicki Lara, Damion Cordova, Agner Martinez, Mike Geile, Tom Selders, Gil Gutierrez, Diane Liges, Sylvia Martinez, Sonny Subia, Kathy Lopez, Rhonda Solis, Tina Martinez, Jorge Amaya, Alberto Loya, Mitch Gonzalez, Ricardo Salazar and Juvenal Cervantes.

Since our first voter registration effort on April 29, we have registered more than 164 new voters to add to the more than 11,000 Latino/a individuals who are currently registered active voters in Weld County. We have also purchased our own auto-dialing system and have created a system to continue to register voters door to door and at various sites and events.

Thanks to the hard work of all of our volunteers and the support from various groups, we have taken the first major steps toward achieving our goals.

Roberto Córdova is the director of El Voto Latino. David Gutierrez is the executive director.

DETAILS

« For more information about El Voto Latino, go to elvotolatino.org.

« Anyone wishing to join El Voto Latino, may contact Roberto Córdova, (bilingual: Spanish or English) by calling 353-3281 or e-mailing rcordova7@hotmail.com, or David Gutierrez (English) by calling 313-6310 or e-mailing gutierrez@yahoo.com.