Getting people to the polls, refusing to overlook the importance
of even one person’s vote and clarifying the absentee voting
process were discussion topics at an election forum sponsored by
the League of United Latin American Citizens Tuesday night.
Hollister – Getting people to the polls, refusing to overlook the importance of even one person’s vote and clarifying the absentee voting process were discussion topics at an election forum sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens Tuesday night.
Organizers intended to educate people about the upcoming elections, on a local and national scale, and to introduce people who will be involved in a number of election activities in the community, said LULAC president Ruben Lopez.
Guillermo Padilla, an employee of Mexican radio station Radio KMPG, spoke about the importance of not overlooking Mexican citizens who have recently become citizens and speak broken English but still have a strong desire to get involved in the electoral process and to vote.
Padilla said most of the campaigning is done in English, which causes many people who want to get involved to remain benched on the sidelines because the information being disseminated isn’t aimed at them.
“Just pay attention to us, please,” Padilla said. “We may not speak very good English, but we are here and we vote.”
“What you’ve just heard is probably the most powerful thing you’ll hear all night,” said moderator Richard Ybarra, an expert on local government politics.
Getting people involved in any way, shape or form is one of the most important aspects of running for an elected office, he said.
Every vote counts, and candidates have to be thoroughly prepared to go door to door, make countless phone calls even when people don’t want to take the time to listen and work until the final minutes the polls are open on election night to secure a win, he said.
“When you call people about an election, don’t let them tell you they don’t want to talk. You have to push harder,” Ybarra said. “Ask them, ‘You’re registered to vote, are you against voting? What is it you don’t like about democracy?’ Never take a step back when pushing people to vote.”
Joe Paul Fernandez of the county auditing department thoroughly covered absentee voting, which caused a stir with the District 5 supervisors race during the March election.
He outlined who can and who can’t drop off an absentee ballot and that the ballot must be signed exactly the way the person signed their name when they registered. He also said the Elections Office is going to more closely monitor the retrieval of absentee ballots during the November election.
Ybarra suggested to Fernandez the office conduct a training session for candidates running for office to educate them on campaign finance, absentee voting and electioneering.
Fernandez said the office is going to conduct a marketing campaign to solicit bilingual poll workers to work at the polls during the November election.
Currently the office has 32 applications, but it needs at least 55 poll workers.
Two of the forum’s guest speakers, Steve Ybarra, an elections consultant and Secretary of State’s Office consultant for Latinos for America, and Nativo Lopez, the national and state president for the Mexican American Political Association, were unable to attend because of scheduling conflicts.
Erin Musgrave is a staff writer. She can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 336, or by e-mail at
em*******@fr***********.com.
