Please Consider contributing to our online fundraising campaign. “Sí Se Puede, If You Vote” hosted by Latinos in Philanthropy to help fund our civic engagement efforts.
Please forward this link https://hipgive.org/project/si-se-puede-if-you-vote/ to your friends, family and colleagues to help raise money for DHF’s voter outreach efforts. Donations given today will be matched at two times today, at 12 and 4pm! Today is the only day that the funds will be matched.
Getting Latinos in California’s Central Valley to the Polls!
As election day nears, the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) is ramping up their ongoing massive, coordinated non-partisan civic engagement efforts targeting youth, new citizens, and low propensity voters in Kern and Tulare Counties for voter registration, education, turn out, and voter protection.
Efforts have and will include voter education with traditional door-to-door outreach and phone banking by paid canvassers and volunteers. The DHF will also distribute non-partisan voter guides and host candidates forums in Arvin, Bakersfield, Lamont, Lindsay, and Woodlake. In addition, they will provide voter protection information and poll monitoring on Election Day.
The DHF will appeal to young voters through the “Election Day is the Most Important of Your Life” Video Contest for participants from ages 13 to 25. (The details of the contest are online at www.doloreshuerta.org and on the Dolores Huerta Foundation Facebook Page.) In addition, there are plans to commemorate the following important electoral dates with conspicuous visually appealing public announcements designed to grab the attention of large audiences, such as human bill-boarding in high traffic areas: National Voter Registration Day on September 27th, Vote By Mail Ballots Issued on October 10th, and Last Day to Register to Vote on October 24th. DHF will utilize their social media platforms to promote all of these efforts.
Why it Matters
“Election Day is the most important day of your life!” – Dolores C. Huerta
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinos comprise 34% of the adult population in California, but just 18% of likely voters in contrast to their White counterparts who make up only 43% of California’s adult population, but 60% of the state’s likely voters.. Additionally, nearly six in ten unregistered adults are Latino (57%).
DHF is working to shift the tide by making sure thousands of recently naturalized citizens and newly eligilble young and historically infrequent voters, who reside in the agriculture rich Central Valley of California, have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. DHF’s comprehensive civic engagement efforts register eligible citizens, ensure that prospective voters get the information, electoral education, and the encouragement they need to cast their ballot. They will put voter protection mechanisms in place to ensure that all voters who cast ballots have them counted.
During this election season, DHF has registered 930 voters in Kern County and organized Candidate Forums in Arvin, Lamont, Lindsay and Woodlake. Another is scheduled in Bakersfield. Door to door and phone banking outreach efforts are focused on increasing DHF’s base of 20,000 supportive voters. The goal is to contact a total of 16,268 voters and identify 11,388 supporters, turnout 8,199 voters to the polls on Election Day. DHF created a non-partisan Voter Guide with recommendations on state propositions and local measures for distribution at candidate forums and door to door outreach efforts.
There is work to be done and the efforts of the DHF’s current campaign, “Sí Se Puede, If you Vote!” demonstrate that social justice and sustainable systemic change is achievable through relationship-building with and civically engaged community residents!
How We’ll Put Your Donations to Work
Your donations will allow us to:
- Train bilingual Poll Monitors (at least 10 in each county of Kern, Tulare, and Kings) to ensure voting rights are upheld in the Central Valley.
- Recruit and train youth volunteers to reach Millennials of Color in the Central Valley to increase voter turn out.
- Implement voter registration efforts at high schools in the Central Valley.
