Voto Latino


Voto Latino is a 501 4 nonprofit organization, in the United States founded in 2004. The organization's primary aim is to encourage young Hispanic and Latino voters to register to vote and become more politically involved. The organization was co-founded by Rosario Dawson, and Phil Colon. The current president is María Teresa Kumar.

History

Voto Latino was created in response to challenges Latino communities faced in both political engagement and technological literacy in the early 2000s. Voto Latino used various social media platforms and telenovela-like videos to engage young Hispanic voters. Voto Latino celebrated their ten-year anniversary one year late in 2015.

Activities

Voto Latino is involved with raising awareness about politics for Hispanic voters and also how to register to vote. Because many Latino voters are the first to vote in their families, Voto Latino works to interest young voters. Voto Latino also provides education about United States citizenship for permanent residents of the US.
The organization partnered with the U.S. Census Bureau to expand Latino participation in the 2010 census. "To spread the word, Voto Latino and MTV’s Latino channel Tr3s aired public service announcements, created a hashtag on Twitter and established a nationwide network of bloggers". Kumar and her team also launched the 'Be Counted' campaign, which included a bilingual mobile phone app which enabled Latinos to fill out the 2010 census on their phones.
In 2016, Voto Latino initiated a new project, and app which could quickly register people using their driver's license at public events. The events were part of a campaign with the bands Maná and Los Tigres del Norte called SomosMas2016.
Voto Latino has played a primary role in registering over half a million new Latino voters. In June 2018, the organization announced that it has set a new goal of registering one million voters by 2020 and is planning to spend $7 million on the project.