Even in the midst of the pandemic, the economic crisis, intimidation and misinformation against minorities, in the presidential elections of 2020, a record turnout of Latino voters was achieved.
During the videoconference “ How secure is your right to vote?”, organized by Ethnic Media Services, Myrna Pérez, director of the program of protections and rights of Brennan Center voters said the reforms that were made in 35 states to make voting easier and people vote.
” I want to make it very clear: this happened because many people got involved, volunteers, organizations like Mi Familia Vota, athletes and celebrities ”.
And he observed that in the last election they realized that many people like the homeless have to deal with barriers such as the lack of a place to live in order to register to vote.
“This country is horrible because it does not provide facilities for people without home, when they should have the right to vote. With this eviction crisis, there is a lot of work to do. We have failed many Americans; and we have to do better. ”
Voter intimidation
Pérez lamented the cases of the people who couldn’t vote because they were intimidated and scared.
“In the last election, we learned that bullying and misinformation are real and that they were made on purpose; but also, as in no other election, complaints were filed. ”
Specifically said that the Proud Boy s, guys with trucks and guns were trying to intimidate people into not voting.
“Fortunately, the voter persevered and was not intimidated. But we don’t know how many stopped voting for this. ”
He said that they also learned that there are many cracks in the electoral system that impact voters of minorities.
“ It is better when we have the systems prepared with a plan B to face any challenge like hackers, a pandemic or natural disaster ”.
And he criticized that some election administrators are dealing with threats of death and are even prosecuting them .
“The same laws should be used against people who intimidate voters.”
He remarked that we have to make sure that the John-Lewis federal bill that gives voters rights is passed and will authorize more federal observers.
“ It will allow for less problem emas so that our communities go to vote and we can count on a democracy that is robust and inclusive. ”
And he regretted that when people are starting to get anxious because the US is no longer so white, they are discrediting in a racist way to protect and maintain the power structure.
Systematic Racism
Judith Browne Dianis, Attorney at Civil rights and co-director of the Advancement Project, a grassroots organization focused on eliminating systemic racism and protecting voters, said she never thought we were going to experience an uprising by white supremacist mobs with the idea of getting rid of the elections.
“Unfortunately we have seen this before when hatred ends in violence; and minority people are the ones who always lose. ”
He explained that the taking of the Capitol in Washington, DC leads us to think about the racial issue.
“The white supremacists arrived with Confederate flags, and what we saw with the police response it was unequal treatment and they even asked permission to remove them. ”
Instead, he mentioned that in the summer, protesters from Black Lives Matters were attacked by police and military.
“The insurrection has to do with the restart of the confederate state and white supremacism. It is an incident that occurred because of so many lies that were told about fraud in minority communities ”.
Browne Dianis stated that l minorities participated in the elections in record numbers even when they tried to restrict the vote.
“We also saw certain states that tried to make changes to suppress voters and give them less access. In Georgia, for example, they seek to undermine absentee votes and ask for identification. In Pennsylvania, Republicans want there to be identification requirements for signatures to be verified.
Latin vote
Dr. Gabriela Lemus, president of Mi Familia Vota, an education fund that works in 25 states of the country, said that in the last election they managed to increase the Latino voting power.
“We achieved the widest operation in key states where the concentration of Latinos is strong and growing; and where there are gaps in the organization such as California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Florida, We add Michigan and Georgia. ”
And this, he emphasized , occurred despite challenges such as the pandemic.
He clarified that they focused on new citizens, and young people who had never voted, or they did it a few times.
To promote the Latino vote they increased their digital capacity, due to the fact that there is a gap in this field among Latinos . “We work with smartphones not so much on the computer.”
He pointed out that the most remarkable thing is that of the 8.6 million Latinos who voted early, 2.4 did for the first time and were newly registered s.
“We were the second largest group of voters . Our participation was decisive in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania because we helped people to seize power for themselves. ”
He mentioned that Mi Familia Vota’s job is to ensure that voters vote early. “We need to contact them 3, 4 times, and to achieve this we work with local activists and organizations.”