A tour to inform and register Latino voters throughout the country kicks off tonight.
The ¡Todos a Votar! (“Let’s Vote!”) tour will travel through California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Colorado, before winding its way to Texas. The group will be in Houston in mid-September but has plans to visit more Texas cities.
Tonight the campaign’s first event, a Twitter town hall with the hashtag #voto12, will allow users to chat online about issues effecting Latino voters.
TheService Employees International Union (SEIU) is one of the groups involved in the tour. Eliseo Medina, the group’s International Secretary-Treasurer says the initiative sends a clear message to voters.
“Your vote is your voice,” he said. “Through your vote you will be able to determine what the future of your family will be like.”
Medina says issues like immigration and healthcare reform make this election critical for Latino voters. But he says the sheer volume of Latinos in the country make this demographic critical for candidates.
“If we turn out in the numbers that we are capable of I think that we will be the deciding vote not only for the presidential election but also who is going to control the U.S. House and the Senate,” he said.
Medina says the tour’s goal is to register about one million new voters within the Latino population before the November election. He says the group wants to see 12 million Latino voters go to the polls in the presidential election.
