The Hispanic Federation says 88 percent of the Latino voters it registered cast ballots in the 2020 election, a turnout rate 22 percentage points higher than the national figure of 66 percent, which was the highest since 1900. The group laid out those numbers in a June 3 column for El Diario by its president, Frankie Miranda, published ahead of New York’s June 23 primary.
That primary was set to decide party nominees for the November 3 general election. The column listed races for governor, lieutenant governor, state attorney general, state comptroller, the state’s entire delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, and state senate and assembly seats.
Jessica Orozco Guttlein, the federation’s senior vice president of public policy and communications, outlined what is at stake nationally. “Although on November 3 we will not vote for president or vice president, we will elect or reelect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, at least 35 national senators, and three dozen state governors,” she said, in remarks translated from Spanish.
Registration had already closed for the June primary by the time the column ran, Guttlein said, but voters still had time to register for November 3. She pointed people who were not yet registered to the federation’s free bilingual help line at (866) 432-9832.
The Hispanic Federation, which was founded in 1990 and is marking its 36th anniversary this year, ties those turnout numbers to a long-running voter push. The group says it has registered more than 160,000 Latinos since 2016, granted more than $1.3 million to grassroots organizations for civic participation work, and reached more than 3 million Latino voters with its messaging. In 2022 it launched La Voz de Mi Gente, which it describes as a nonpartisan campaign to register and mobilize Latino voters and to help local organizations pull their own communities into the process.
To vote in New York you must be a citizen and registered. The state Board of Elections runs a help line for questions on Election Day at 866-VOTE-NYC, or (866) 868-3692. New Yorkers who want to register before November can reach the Hispanic Federation‘s bilingual line at (866) 432-9832.
