Rogers : Hispanic women organize vote drive
Posted on Sunday, October 8, 2006
ROGERS - An area Hispanic group on Saturday encouraged others in their community to flex their collective political muscle by registering to vote.
The Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas hosted voter registration booths in Springdale and Rogers to register eligible Hispanics to vote.
The women's organization, based in Rogers, registered about 30 people during the drive, said Margarita Solorzano, an organizer of the event.
Along with registering people to vote, volunteers also told people about citizenship and English classes that are available.
Most of the people who registered Saturday were new American citizens or had recently turned 18, Solorzano said.
"Every person makes a difference,"she said. "In this state, even a couple hundred voters make a difference. We want politicians to take notice of the Hispanic community."
The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 7 election is Monday.
After the registration deadline passes, the group plans to continue to spread a message through radio spots and a direct-mail campaign that registered voters need to get to the polls.
"We will also be making a lot of phone calls,"Solorzano said. "We're doing everything we can to get the word out to the community.
"People are realizing there is more of a need for to be involved in our community."
The women's organization has registered more than 300 Hispanics in Northwest Arkansas in the past month, said Ana Hart, a member who helped with the effort.
"If we want to be part of this community we must get out to the polls,"Hart said. "We want people to know it's their voice, their families and their community."
The effort had more than tripled the number of voters the group registered before the last general election in 2004.
"The last time we registered about 80 people, so this is a big improvement,"Solorzano said.
To be eligible to vote, a person has to be a U. S. citizen and at least 18 years old.
There are 30, 000 Hispanics in Arkansas who are eligible to vote, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D. C.
According to the study, there are 12, 996 voter-eligible Hispanics in the 3 rd Congres- sional District, which covers Northwest Arkansas. The Arkansas secretary of state's office in Little Rock said there isn't a way to break down the number of registered voters by race. The Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas is one of 20 organizations nationwide working with the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group, to encourage people to get to the polls. "The hands, ears and heads [of the effort ] are the affiliates,"Hart said.
To contact this reporter: sfitzgerald@arkansasonline. com
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