Initiative Urges Latinos To Vote
CHRIS ECHEGARAY
The Tampa Tribune
Oct 29, 2006
TAMPA - Caesar Gonzmart organized his voter registration table at Curtis Hixon Park well before the first citizen-to-be arrived for a naturalization ceremony.
After they swore their allegiance to the United States, the new Americans swarmed him. Tall and lanky, wearing a toothy grin, Gonzmart swiftly signed up a Colombian woman - sprinkling a little Spanish into that conversation - and Indian and Vietnamese men to vote.
He's the first Hispanic community liaison for Hillsborough County's supervisor of elections - an acknowledgement of a Latino population that has more than doubled since 1990 in the county. Gonzmart is in charge of voter education and enrollment.
"There's a keen interest to make sure Hispanics have every opportunity to avail themselves, as all voters should, of the election process," said Gonzmart, 62.
Gonzmart's Oct. 1 hiring coincides with a statewide and national push by grassroots organizations to register Latino voters. For instance, Democracia U.S.A., a national nonpartisan group, has registered more than 105,000 people this year, more than half in Florida.
With the general elections Nov. 7, some criticize the Supervisor of Elections Office for not hiring someone sooner.
In Hillsborough County, there are 65,096 Latinos registered to vote in this year's elections. There are 124,288 Latinos of voting age, according to 2000 census data. Overall, there are 624,293 registered voters in the county and 745,810 residents of voting age.
Gonzmart Family Has Deep Roots
Latinos in Hillsborough County will respond to Gonzmart's initiative, according to Jorge Mursuli, vice president for Hispanic affairs and executive director for Democracia U.S.A., in Miami.
During the Mi Familia Vota (My Family Votes) project, Mursuli's group registered 6,442 Latinos in the county in 2004, a presidential election year.
"That position in the elections office is a good example of what I think other places should do," Mursuli said. "It's a fallacy when people think Hispanics don't vote. They don't necessarily know how to vote. You have to engage them more in the process."
