By Joseph Hadfield
Su voto es su voz. Your vote is your voice.
That is the motto of Frank Cordova and his team of volunteers, who work at tables outside of grocery stores and go door-to-door to encourage their fellow Latinos to participate in elections.
“There is no reason for people not to vote, to exercise their right and responsibility to vote,” Cordova said. “We have the best voter educational system in the world and the easiest to participate in.”
Cordova and the volunteers are a part of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. The project is non-partisan and began in Texas in an effort to register Latinos to vote and encourage civic participation.
Although the project spread to Utah in the 1970s, it functioned only in spurts for 20 years.
Cordova turned the project around in 1996, and since then they have had up to 300 volunteers who have registered over 12,000 people.
As director of the program, Cordova hopes Utah”s rapidly growing Latino population will be a presence at the polls every year.
“The more people you get out to vote, the more politicians pay attention to you, regardless if it”s a sheriff, county attorney, or state legislator,” Cordova said.
As Election Day nears, project members are shifting their focus from registration campaigns to teaching voters about how political issues affect their lives.
Cordova said some the most important issues for Latinos are education, housing and immigration.
“When we do deal with issues, we have a better chance of making a difference,” Cordova said.
Cordova said others ask him why keeps doing this instead of feeling discouraged. In reply, he said Latinos have a great opportunity in America to influence government.
“In other countries I have seen pictures, they have armed guards at the polls,” Cordova said.
“Some countries will pay you to vote, in others they kill you if don”t, and some countries won”t let you vote.”
