Si, Se Puede, Votar

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How An Innovative Field Campaign Turned Out Low-Efficacy Latino Voters...

"After two years of inspiring more than 1.4 million new naturalization applications, registering more than 500,000 new immigrant votes and contacting more than 1 million immigrant Latino and immigrant voters, the We Are America Alliance is proud to see our hard workbegin to pay off. Historical turnout in the 2008 election shows how big an effect these communities can have in re-shaping the electoral map, impacting important issues like immigration, and developing a culture of participation." 

—Holli Holliday, Executive Director, We Are America Alliance

By Mark Kanarick and Ari Appel

In 2008, at least 11 million Latinos went to the polls, a 30 percent jump from the 2004 elections. That staggering increase was rooted in several factors. Certainly, anger about some Republican immigration proposals and anti-immigrant rhetoric, combined with interest generated by the historic Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama candidacies, contributed to increased Latino turnout. But it simply would not have happened absent the unprecedented effort of Latino and immigrant advocacy organizations to boost traditionally low turnout among Latinos. Groups like ACORN, the Center for Community Change, Democracia Ahora and Mi Familia Vota came together in 2007 to form the We Are America Alliance. The Alliance’s goal was to translate the raw emotions stirred by the immigration battles in 2006 into a broader “culture of participation” in the civic arena, both at the voting booth and in the halls of Congress.

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