Causa Oregon works to turn out Latino Voters in Oregon

Over the weekend, Causa Oregon joined forces with several community organizations for the only known Multilingual Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Phone Bank in the United States. Organizations involved in the effort included Center for InterculturalOrganizing, APANO, Oregon Voice and Causa Oregon and languages covered included Russian, Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, English, Somali, and others. 14 volunteers made over 1000 calls reminding people to turn in their ballot by Election Day.

Saturday’s GOTV phone bank is just one of many that Causa volunteers, staff and board members have been participating. Since the 1st day ballots have started hitting Oregon voters’ mailboxes, Reyna Lopez, Causa’s Portland Organizer, has been leading the effort to turn out Oregon’s Latino Vote for Causa. As of today, over 5000 registered voters have been contacted.

Reyna Lopez

“Our efforts have been critical in turning out Latinos to vote in Oregon’s this year", said Lopez. “It is very important for Latinos to vote in this election so that their voice can be heard in decisions that affect their families.”

National polls are predicting that Latinos will be a critical deciding factor in many battleground states in this year’s election and Oregon is no different.

Causa’s Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort is just one of the many actions being done to engage Oregon Latino voters this election cycle. In the run up to voter registration deadline on October 16th, Causa helped register over 3000 new voters around the state. These new voters are among those being called to be reminded to cast their vote by tomorrow.

In addition to the calls to voters, Causa mailed out over 10,000 Voters Guides last month which included recommendations on three ballot measures: Measures 85, 84 and 79.  Causa Oregon recommends a YES vote on Measure 85 and a NO vote on both Measure 79 and Measure 84. 

Causa and their allies will continue Get Out The Vote activities right up to when polls close on Tuesday at 8 pm in Oregon.

Election Day is tomorrow, (Tuesday, November 6^th) and ballots need to be turned in by no later than 8 pm at a designated county elections drop box to ensure that they are counted.  Those who need to find a drop box in their county can visit www.ballotdrop.org, a website sponsored by the Oregon Bus Project. Voters should be sure to drop off their ballot early to ensure they won’t have to wait in line.

Voters who have not received a ballot should contact their County Elections office immediately.  To get the contact information for county elections offices around Oregon, please visit www.oregonvote.org or call 1-(503) 986-1518.