Activists Ready to Protect Latinos’ Voting Rights

With Latino turnout expected to hit an all-time high in next week’s elections, a coalition of rights activists unveiled a nationwide plan Tuesday aimed at countering possible harassment and intimidation of voters.

The effort--dubbed Latino Election Watch ‘96--includes toll-free hotlines for complaints, and a team of lawyers from California to New York ready to investigate potential violations of the Voting Rights Act and go into federal court seeking injunctions or other relief.

“We have made great efforts to ensure that our community comes out to vote, and we want to make damn sure they will be given the opportunity,” said Antonia Hernandez, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The activists said they acted not in response to a specific threat, but because of a political climate that they call hostile to immigrants and that they believe could lead to intimidating tactics at polling places.

“It’s not unlikely that people are going to show up at the polls and start asking voters for proof of citizenship--which is illegal,” said Arturo Vargas of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

Concern is especially high this year, monitors say, because hundreds of thousands of new citizens will head to the polls for the first time. Intensive registration drives and efforts to get out the vote are expected to boost Latino participation to record levels in California and across the nation. One survey indicates that as many as 4 in 5 new Latino citizens in California have already registered--overwhelmingly as Democrats.

Prominent Republicans, including presidential candidate Bob Dole, have publicly accused the Clinton administration of expediting the citizenship process in an effort to bolster Democratic ranks.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the nation’s governors, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said there was “no evidence” to support the “reckless and divisive” charges, which she called “deeply unfair to the millions of dedicated and patriotic new Americans.”

But the allegations have inflamed many suburban activists in Southern California who have long charged, without substantiation, that huge numbers of illegal immigrants and other noncitizens have been registering and voting. State and local investigators say there is no evidence of such a scheme.

One Orange County group organized against illegal immigrants has announced its intention to post volunteers outside polls Tuesday with fliers declaring, “Only Citizens Can Vote! Violators Will Be Prosecuted!”

Barbara Coe, who heads the California Coalition for Immigration Reform and is organizing the leafleting, called the action “completely legal” because volunteers will remain more than 100 feet from polling places and give the leaflets only to those who ask for them.

A Los Angeles County-based activist organization, Voice of Citizens Together, is considering having volunteers at polling places with similar leaflets, said Glenn Spencer, the group’s president.

Eight years ago, a firestorm ensued in Orange County when Republican activists posted uniformed guards at polling places hoisting signs in English and Spanish warning that noncitizens were barred from voting. Republican officials denied any wrongdoing, but a federal lawsuit by six Latino citizens was eventually settled for $400,000.

Latino activists say voters encountering problems such as harassment, illegal checking of status or lack of Spanish-language assistance where required by law can call one of two toll-free telephone numbers on election day--(800) 34-NALEO inside California, and (800) 44-NALEO outside the state.