Bloomberg Works to Get More Latinos to the Polls

Bloomberg donates to voto latino

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By Giselle Balido

March 17, 2020

In a push to help defeat President Donald Trump in November, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated half a million dollars to mobilize Latinos.

Bloomberg has donated $500,000 to Voto Latino, a Hispanic advocacy group, to help register more Latinos to vote in November’s general election. “We need to make sure that Latinos who are eligible to vote are registered and that we get them to the polls,” said the former NYC mayor in a statement.

After ending his own 2020 presidential bid, Bloomberg, who has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, now turns his eye to the influential U.S. Latino vote.

This takes on new significance when considering that only about half of the nation’s 60 million Hispanics are eligible to vote –the smallest share of any racial or ethnic group, according to PEW Research Center. In fact, more than 18 million are under 18 years old, and 11.3 million are non-citizen adults, for example.

The funds donated to Voto Latino are an effort to help enfranchise 1 million young Latino voters across Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, among other key states, ahead of the November election.

Among the states with the largest Latino populations, about half or more of Hispanics are eligible to vote in Florida (56%), California (51%) and Texas (50%).

 “We need to make sure that Latinos who are eligible to vote are registered and that we get them to the polls – and I’m supporting Voto Latino to help achieve both goals,” added Bloomberg, who has also donated $2 million to a nonprofit organization working to register black voters.

So far, Voto Latino has registered more than 81,000 citizens, provided 13,000 rides to the polls, and made more than 88,000 voter contacts to date. According to the Hispanic advocacy group, 75 percent of new voters registered are between 18 to 34 years old. This presents an opportunity for those who have seen their communities maligned, to push back on anti-Latino sentiment through the power of the ballot.

“Four million young people who heard the president call their loved ones criminals and rapists have come of age since those terrible remarks and will be eligible to cast a vote for the very first time this November,” said Voto Latino President Maria Teresa Kumar, who feels confident that this election “will be a referendum on the politics of hate and divisiveness” espoused by the current administration.

 Here’s all you need to know to register to vote

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