COUNTYWIDE : Latino Groups Plan Drive to Sign Voters

Local Latino groups launched a yearlong voter-registration effort Tuesday with a goal of signing 15,000 new voters in the county in time for the November election.

The groups hope to recruit 500 volunteers to go door-to-door in targeted areas to register voters, said Zeke Hernandez, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“It’s going to be an effort to get as many Americans as we can who are 18 years and over to register and vote,” Hernandez said. “It’s a difficult task, but it’s rewarding at the same time.

The volunteers will target neighborhoods in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Buena Park, La Habra, Placentia, Orange and Stanton, he said.

The workers, by law, cannot advocate one political party over another, nor will they turn away non-Latinos, he said.

“This cuts across ethnic lines,” Hernandez said. “We want people to register and vote.”

A similar effort is being launched in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, with a goal of registering a total of 30,000 new voters, said Veronica Gutierrez, a representative of Latino groups who have joined in the effort there.

Campaigns in Houston and Dallas have registered 18,000 Latinos, said Richard Martinez, executive director of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which will oversee the projects in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Members will train volunteers to register voters within the legal framework and in a nonpartisan atmosphere, Hernandez said.

The Orange County project, called Voting Inspires Participation, or VIP, has set a goal of registering 5,000 new voters by the June primary and 15,000 by November.

“We want to impress upon those we register that they follow through and exercise their right to vote . . . that they go out and study the issues and examine the candidates,” Hernandez said.

Anyone interested in volunteering may call the League of United Latin American Citizens at (714) 835-9586 or Hermandad Mexicana Nacional at (714) 541-0250.