There are hundreds of reasons to vote, ranging from protecting civil rights to protecting our rights as consumers to the prices for the food we buy at the grocery store. Voting is how we raise our voices and move the issues we care about forward. It’s how we protect the things we care about and change the things we disagree with.
The Latino community has been at the forefront of many movements for change in communities across the country. Our vote—like the vote of all Americans across the country—has made a difference in election after election, helping to shape policies on a wide range of issues.
Below are five examples from five different states where using our vote to raise our voice made a change.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio was infamous in Arizona’s Maricopa County for demonizing immigrants and the Latino community. Throughout his tenure as sheriff, he kept inmates in deplorable tent city jails in the hot Arizona sun, would feed them rotten food, and force them to wear pink underwear.
Arpaio was even convicted of racially profiling Latinos by the courts—which he ignored.
Fed up with Arpaio’s abuse of the community, young Latinos organized to defeat Arpaio in the 2016 election.
Born out of their work was Bazta Arpaio, a coalition of community members and advocates who focused on registering and turning out first-time voters to defeat Arpaio in the general election.
Because of their tireless work in campaigning to stand up to then-Sheriff Arpaio, we awarded Bazta Arpaio the Maclovio Award for Leadership at the 2017 NCLR Annual Conference.
Arpaio’s election in 2016 was decided by an 11-point margin on Election Day.
Colorado has the eighth highest Latino population in the country, and Latinos overall are disproportionately concentrated in jobs that pay minimum wage.
In 2016, Colorado voted to increase the minimum wage in the state from $8.31 an hour to $9.30 an hour in 2017 increasing by 90 cents every year until 2020, when the minimum wage will reach $12 an hour.
Some of the organizations that supported the increase in Colorado’s minimum wage include: Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, Generation Latino, Mi Familia Vota Colorado, and Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.
Colorado’s minimum wage ballot measure passed by 11 points on Election Day.