Early voting for November’s election is already underway in a number of states, with encouraging signs that Latino, immigrant and AAPI voters are energizing and coming out to vote — some for the very first time.
According to one Democratic pollster in Colorado, the early voter numbers “are staggering. D’s now +8.2% of 290,000 so this is not small sample size…15% of those who have voted so far in CO have NO vote history. That is a huge number for this early.”
The Latino eligible voter population in the state is estimated to be 555,000 – nearly 15% of the total electorate.
Local groups on the ground are working hard on canvassing and getting out the vote, and they have reported enthusiastic reactions from Coloradans eager for their first voting experience.
Cody:
“Lady said she has never missed out on a vote since she helped elect JFK.”
Colin:
“This woman worked for 23 years to become a legal citizen to be able to go to college. She is now a US citizen and has a B.A. She doesn’t want Trump because he will prevent people like her from succeeding.”
Davon:
“Kathryn is a teacher who is also an immigrant. She wants to support Morgan Carroll because she knows the struggle of students who speak English as a second language.”
“Mike Coffman said that Spanish-speakers should ‘pull out a dictionary’ if they wanted to read their ballots. Kathryn remembers.”
Dee:
“Leticia is excited to be voting. She is very emotional about being a citizen. Been here for 25 years.”
Jasmin:
“I canvassed a woman who only knew Spanish, and we had a conversation where after almost everything she said she repeated ‘No Trump!’ and I had to agree with her after every time she said it! ‘NO TRUMP!’”
Jeff:
“Just became a citizen, his first time voting.”
Louis:
“I knocked on the door and the father answered. I could tell right away that he couldn’t speak speak very good English, but knew what we were there to talk to him about. He went to grab the rest of his family and had them listen to my entire script, and they all filled out commit to vote cards at the same time. They were very interested in being involved in the process.”
Reyna:
“Young girl comes to the door then yells for her younger sister, then yells for her Mom, to come to the door. She tells her family ‘You all need to vote, fill this out and this is your promise to vote.’
“She said her father is not registered to vote but has the capacity to do so, she will personally take him to do that. She is interested in volunteering. She was very inspiring, as she was eating pizza, her dinner, she explained to us that, ‘This is so wonderful that you are going doing this.’
“As we were leaving, Dad showed up from work. He expressed appreciation also, and promised he would vote. It was truly a family affair!”
Veronica:
“Let Tommy’s father, who is a new citizen, use [my] iPad so he could access the Secretary of State’s website to register to vote for the first time in his life.”
