The Saratogian (Saratoga, NY)

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- Esther Cepeda’s email address is estherjcep­eda@washpost. com, or follow her on Twitter: @ estherjcep­eda.

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The mainstream media has two settings when it comes to Latino voters: “The Sleeping Giant will determine the next president!” and “A confoundin­g mystery endures: Latino voters don’t turn out to vote, but why?!”

A primer: There is no such thing as a “Latino community.” Latino voters are diverse — from many different countries and cultures. And complex — with different views toward immigratio­n, depending on where they’re from (remember that all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth and Cubans have enjoyed special rules for entering the U.S. and obtaining legal status since the Cold War).

Candidates uttering a few stock phrases in heavily accented Spanish aren’t going to cut it. This is especially true when issues that have particular resonance with Hispanic voters — education, health care, gun violence, jobs for our children’s future — are left largely unexplored.

Last week, Arnold Garcia and Kyle Longley wrote an essay in The New York Times with the headline “What Democrats Need to Know to Win Latinos.” As they put it: “The 2018 midterm elections showed a sharp increase in Latino voter turnout, but the continued failure by Democrats to understand the nuances of the Latino electorate could well result in another forehead-slapping, head-scratching rerun of disappoint­ing turnout in 2020.” Yes! But, also, let’s not forget that even as the Latino electorate requires understand­ing, it needs something far simpler to get energized and ready to vote next November. Money. Cash. Moolah. Or, in the parlance of politics: resources, investment­s.

“The best strategy to increase Latino voter turnout in presidenti­al elections is to close the registrati­on gap,” according to a new analysis of Latino voters by UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza) and the polling firm Latino Decisions.

“Closing the registrati­on gap” is an artful phrase that hides the stone-cold truth: Organizati­ons that care about getting Latinos registered to vote, informed about the candidates and issues, and energized to actually get to a polling place on Election Day need the money to make that happen.

Printing leaflets in Spanish and getting organizers to go doorto-door preaching about this or that candidate won’t move the needle.

Airing ads on Spanish language radio and TV isn’t anywhere near enough.

Organizati­ons need to pay lawyers to advocate for Latino voters in state legislatur­es where fights against gerrymande­ring and discrimina­tory poll practices are ongoing.

Organizati­ons need help sponsoring civics sessions that educate Hispanics whose families may be from foreign countries about why and how their vote matters in this coming election.

Organizati­ons must register Latinos to vote, and they also need to identify those who need proper identifica­tion — like state IDs and driver’s licenses — for when they get to the polls.

Organizati­ons must help potential Latino voters wade through the maze of getting their registrati­on sorted out if there’s a typo or their card doesn’t arrive in the mail, or if they’ve somehow been thrown off their state’s voter rolls in a data “cleanup.”

And on Election Day, organizati­ons need to be everywhere on the ground. They need to help by getting people out to vote, driving people to far-flung poll locations and monitoring balloting places for irregulari­ties, such as machines that are malfunctio­ning, improper electionee­ring or election judges who are confused about Latino people’s multiple last names.

These tactics are longtime, tried-and-true methods of getting any special group of voters out to the polls. But they need to happen now, when the countless grass-roots organizati­ons who understand their specific Hispanic communitie­s’ needs require the funds to build and staff their outreach efforts.

There are many, many organizati­ons that would love nothing more than to be able to provide these services — free of charge, of course — to every potential Hispanic voter in every community across the country.

They just need money. Resources. Investment­s from larger, national organizati­ons who claim to be very eager to get Latinos out to vote.

Getting Hispanics to vote ain’t rocket science, folks.

It just requires the focused interest of large, national and moneyed organizati­ons to care enough to commit now to getting the Latino vote out in November.

I’m looking at you, Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee and philanthro­pic foundation­s. Will you step up?

 ??  ?? Esther J. Cepeda Columnist
Esther J. Cepeda Columnist

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