Despite being U.S. citizens since 1917, despite holding a U.S. passport and despite being able to join the U.S. army, Puerto Ricans who live on their home island do not have the right to vote in the U.S. presidential election. A study conducted in 2012 by economist Rosario Rivera Negrón, former President of the Puerto Rico Economists Association and a professor at the University of Puerto Rico, demonstrated that “in a typical year (2008), the Puerto Rican economy received a total of $4.6 billion in U.S. federal dollars, while contributing $71.6 billion dollars to the U.S. economy.” Despite all that and much more, unless they live in the U.S., Puerto Ricans can’t vote for “their” President.

“If we die in the army for this country why shouldn’t we be able to vote for our Commander in Chief?” says Adriana Rozas, a Journalism graduate student in Syracuse who is voting for the second time in her life, but for the first time in the U.S. She was one of several Puerto Rican friends who I contacted to discuss voting as a Puerto Rican. She graduated from Amherst College in 2019 and just sent in her absentee ballot for Massachusetts, where she had worked on Ed Markey’s campaign. She explained, “It felt weird, knowing that I’m going to vote but not my parents. Honestly it hurt because yes I voted but there are three million people that aren’t going to vote for their president.”

It is a strange privilege that we don’t take for granted, not only having the right to vote in the U.S. but being able to choose whether to vote in the U.S. or in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico holds its election on the same day as the U.S. does and in fact, it’s a national holiday. María del Mar Fournier, a graduate student at Columbia’s Teacher College explains, “That was a very hard decision for me because I obviously want to get rid of Trump and I have a very clear idea of what I want in the U.S. but in Puerto Rico there is a lot more uncertainty.” Fournier is one of many who feel it is a tough and often unfair decision to have to make. Rozas agrees, explaining, “I feel very connected to Puerto Rico and when I moved, that connection became even stronger, I put more effort into that connection knowing I’m not on the island. It was a hard decision because it felt a little bit like I was betraying ‘la patria’ (Spanish for homeland) by not voting in Puerto Rico but I think the most important thing right now is to get rid of Donald Trump.” Tatiana Rotger, who graduated from Penn State and is currently looking for work in Chicago, chose to vote in the U.S. elections both in 2016 and 2020. She says one of her motivations is knowing that Puerto Ricans in the island can’t vote. “I feel like I have to represent [them].” she says.

Of the millions of Puerto Ricans who get to choose where to vote, not everyone feels that voting in the U.S. rather than in Puerto Rico is the obvious choice. Pia Montilla, who lived in New York City for nearly five years and is now temporarily back home in Puerto Rico, explains it can feel hypocritical “to vote somewhere that wouldn’t give you the right to vote if you didn’t live in mainland U.S.A. It feels like a business deal. Someone can convince you to vote for them but that very person won’t fight for your right to vote if you were in Puerto Rico.” However, at the end of the day, no matter where or for who they vote for, everyone I talked to has one priority in common: Puerto Rico.

Alejandro Auffant, who was working in sales for the Chicago Cubs and has come back to Puerto Rico during the pandemic says that, “Through all my actions I keep in mind that my end-goal is being back in Puerto Rico. For me the way to vote in the U.S. is about who would do better for Puerto Rico.” Rozas agrees, “As a Puerto Rican in the ‘diáspora,’ I vote based on the issues I care about but [being] Puerto Rican, I need to think about who is going to be better for Puerto Rico. I think about who would have handled Hurricane Maria better. What candidate is going to treat us better regardless of whether they give us statehood or independence?” Fournier reinforces the same feeling, that it’s Puerto Rico or bust. She says, “My priority will always be Puerto Rico, I consider myself Puerto Rican even if I’m living here, I feel like I’m on vacation here and my heart is always there. My priority will always be what benefits Puerto Rico.” states Fournier. Javier Álvarez, who attends Tulane Law School, explains, “For so many years we’ve been part of a community that has been marginalized and not been at the forefront of the national conscience. As a Puerto Rican it’s our duty to vote in order for those issues to enter the national conscience.”

Explaining Puerto Rico isn’t easy and the feelings that come with being Puerto Rican aren’t either. On one hand, it’s a relief to hear presidential candidates talk about Puerto Rico, to Puerto Ricans. But when they address Puerto Ricans, with the full awareness that island-dwellers cannot vote for them, it feels disingenuous. Although Puerto Ricans can’t vote in the U.S. elections, they can in fact vote in the primaries from the island, granting candidates much needed delegates. Although Puerto Ricans can’t vote for President, they can possibly influence their family members who are among the 1.2 million Puerto Ricans in Florida alone. The influence of the non-voter becomes almost as important as the vote itself.

At the end of the day, people in Puerto Rico don’t pay federal income taxes, which has landed us in a “no representation without taxation” situation. There is a Resident Commissioner, who is the equivalent of a non-voting member of Congress. But if the 15th Amendment to the Constitution is meant to protect U.S. citizens’ votes, can not paying federal taxes take away that protection? Is the Puerto Rican land that the American government uses for army bases not enough? Were the women left sterilized after birth control experimentation at the hands of U.S. doctors not enough? Are our soldiers not enough? Do we only get to be first-class citizens when our address has U.S.A. on it? Only when you need us?

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On June 23, Singapore’s elections department announced the country’s next general election will be held on July 10. Six days later, the department revealed that preregistered overseas voters can vote at 10 polling stations in Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington DC. 

While a significant number of Singaporean citizens overseas reside in these cities, those cities, states or even countries away from the nearest polling station feel sidelined in this election. 

In many parts of the world, overseas Singaporeans like Faizah are unable to cast their vote. Many have to brave the pandemic, travel to a different state, or even country, serve a 28-day quarantine to make their ballot count. And for those who are working, their overseas employers would never give a 28-day leave. 

Said is an international relocation specialist residing in Dallas  and the nearest polling station for her is San Francisco, at least a three  hour flight and 28 days of quarantine away. Apart from the time and inconvenience that comes with voting, exposure to Covid is also stopping Said from voting. 

“Right now, America is almost the epicenter of the pandemic,” he said, As much as I am patriotic and I want to do my part as a Singaporean citizen, to vote, do I want to expose myself to the virus? And come back to Dallas to expose my wife to the virus?” 

Singaporean postgraduate student Heidi Gay who lives in Toronto, also shared similar concerns about traveling to the polling station in New York.

 “I can and will happily spend the money to travel to vote, but this already speaks to the degree of financial accessibility overseas voting involves,” Gay said. “With the pandemic I believe it is extremely unwise to be getting on a plane to the US, given how the situation has been handled there to this point.” 

But both Said and Gay believe in the importance of their vote. Said had wished to vote for more diversity to represent minority voices in parliament. The 44 year-old identifies as a transman and Malay Muslim and to him, neither of his community is well represented by the current government. 

“I’m not saying that my one vote can immediately say, hey, Singapore’s legalizing gay marriage now,” he said. “But I’m saying my one vote can make a difference. It might be the vote that sways things to the right direction.” 

Said served 10 years as a police office in Singapore. 

 “Yet I have to leave my beloved country to find happiness in another country,” he said which has added even more desire to cast his vote.

Said had expected an election since last year. Under Singapore’s Parliamentary Elections Act, the prime minister calls a general election before the five-year parliamentary term ends in January 2021. Unlike presidential elections in the US, the polling day of Singapore’s most important election is only announced when the prime minister dissolves parliament. 

Since 1972, election periods, only during which parties can campaign, go up to 11 days. While there is no polling day irregularities, the Freedom House notes that “numerous structural factors impede the development of viable electoral competition.” 

Gay was set to vote in one of the only two constituencies previously held by an opposition party. 

“It goes without saying that I take this responsibility very seriously and this ( the decision to forgo her vote) was not an easy decision to make,” Gay said. 

Without the options of online and mail-in voting, Said now finds his only opportunity for equal representation thwarted. 

“It’s almost akin to the president here, Donald Trump, saying that there’s no mail-in voting because it might be rigged,” he said. 

Inability to vote due to their location and the pandemic is not the only obstacle for overseas Singaporeans to practice their voting rights. A technical “glitch”, according to the immigrations and customs authority’s statement on July 4, failed to process 101 voter registrations overseas. Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, changes can no longer be made after the voter lists are certified. 

The Authority said in the statement, that it is making efforts to contact these 101 overseas voters. But some members of a private Facebook group started by overseas voters fear an undercount of affected voters and an impact on election results in key constituencies. 

Along with these overseas voters, another 350 eligible voters in Singapore, Covid-19 patients and those issued a legal quarantine order, usually a close contact of a Covid patient, will not be able to vote. Whereas overseas returnees quarantined in hotels can vote with polling agents bringing ballot boxes from door to door. 

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The midterm elections are scheduled for Tuesday, but whether or not scores of New York University’s students will hit the polls is still undecided.

“I think that it’s important for Americans to vote,” said Nicole Horowitz, 21, a student in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, living in the West Village. “Ideally they should be well-informed on the issues, but I think that no matter what state you live in, it’s important to do what you can.”

But Horowitz’s ideals are not shared by everyone on the sprawling Greenwich Village campus, in the heart of Washington Square. NYU has 58,547 students.

Utkarsh Saddi, 21, a Leonard N. Stern School of Business student, living in New Jersey, said he will not vote.

“I do care what happens,” Saddi said. “But I’m just not interested in taking time to go vote. I have better things to do.”

Saddi added that he doesn’t care for either candidate on either platform, which, according to an analysis by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, is why 5.8 percent of registered voters ages 18-29 didn’t vote in the 2010 midterms.

Midterm elections occur halfway through the president’s four year term.

While President Barack Obama still has two more years in office and his name won’t be on a ballot at the midterms, the elections are considered a thumbs up or thumbs down on his performance. Government gridlock has plagued his presidency and the vote on Tuesday could either ease the gridlock or tighten it. On the ballot will be all 435 seats in the House of Representatives up for re-election, along with 36 Senate seats and 36 gubernatorial seats. Currently the House is controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats.

Voting on who will fill the seats in the midterms, in addition to Horowitz, (who cares about environmentalism and sustainability), will be Francesea Querci, 20, a journalism student in the College of Arts and Science, living in Chinatown. Querci said she will fill out a ballot because she finds political participation extremely important. She’s interested in housing reform.

“Especially as somebody who is considered part of a younger generation, we should participate because we’re going to be the future leaders of this country,” Querci said. “And we need to put people in offices where we can get our voice out there.”

Since 1964, young voters ages 18-24 have consistently voted at lower rates than other age groups, according to an April 2014 report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the United States Census Bureau.

Nationwide, young voting rates dropped from 50.9 percent in 1964 to 38.0 percent in 2012. According to CIRCLE’s May 2013 fact sheet – with data obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS) November Voting and Registration Supplements – the 2012 voter turnout of those aged 18-29 in the state of New York was at 42.4 percent versus 63.4 percent for those aged 30 and older.

The Commerce’s report also mentioned that voting and registration rates are historically lower in non-presidential election years, which we are currently in.

In addition, the number of votes cast during presidential election years from 1972-2012 also show shifts. CIRCLE reported that in the 2000 presidential election, 8.6 million votes were cast by 18-24 year-olds. Numbers increased in 2004 to 11.6 million and again in 2008 to 12.5 million before dipping in 2012 to 11.3 million votes cast.

Michael Pernick, 26, a School of Law student and active member on the NYU Law Democrats board, agreed that numbers have been rising in the youth vote and youth turnout in recent years, but he’s not sure if that will continue after Obama finishes his term.

“That’s a trend that I believe maintained itself that the youth vote has turned out more in recent elections, especially post-2008, than it has previously if you isolate all other variables,” Pernick said. “And that might just be the result of having Barack Obama on the ballot.”

With uncertainty of voter turnout in a non-presidential election year, another obstacle for students is them not registering in their new state. Adam Schulz, 19, a Gallatin student from Chicago, Ill., living in Union Square, said that he’s not voting in the midterms because he never registered in New York. About 10 percent of registered voters in the CIRCLE’s analysis didn’t vote in the 2010 midterms because they were out of town or away from home.

“I could see myself [registering] in the future possibly,” Schulz said. “It’s good to have a say … and I’m going to be spending the majority of my life for the next four years in New York City, so I think I should start getting involved with the voting process.”

Schulz being an out-of-state student represents much of the NYU student body, as the university is home to students from across the globe and across diverse backgrounds.

All 50 states embody the undergraduate student population, international students make up 20 percent of the university’s student body (8.954 students), and the 2013 freshmen class is 18 percent international from a record-breaking 87 countries.

Anibal Suriel, 19, a Stern student from Miami, Fla., living in Chinatown, said that he never planned to vote and isn’t interested, a reason why 17.2 percent of registered voters in 2010 didn’t make it to the midterm polls.

“It’s kind of a hassle, well not a hassle, it’s a process that I’m not familiar with,” Suriel said, adding that he doesn’t know how to register.

Also too busy with classes and extracurricular activities, like 33.5 percent of registered voters in the CIRCLE’s analysis, Suriel, said that he could be interested in voting in the future.

“I definitely would be interested in [voting], especially because political science is my second major,” Suriel said. “So I guess that’s something I should look into.”

 Joanna Bouras contributed to this report

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Staten Island is only a short ferry ride south of Manhattan, but when it comes to Superstorm Sandy recovery, the distance feels great. Since the storm, the hardest hit borough is stuck in a slow recovery.

Last week marked the two year anniversary, and Staten Islanders are still mucking out homes along the Island’s Eastern shore. And with a critical midterm election looming, the issue of recovery is more political now than ever.

2 Years Later: Staten Island Sandy Recovery from Pavement Pieces on Vimeo.

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Public support for the education policy known as the Common Core standards has been free falling in New York State since Governor Andrew Cuomo implemented it in 2012. For Cuomo, it has become an issue in the upcoming elections.

Cuomo, a Democrat, leads his Republican opponent by 21 points, according to the latest Siena poll. But the question is what mandate he will have after the election, said Lawrence Mead, New York University professor and expert on American politics.

Teacher unions, which hold a lot of power in the Democratic Party, now oppose the Common Core. New York State United Teachers withdrew their support at the beginning of the year and asked for “major course corrections to its failed implementation plan,” in an official statement. Depending on the electoral results, Cuomo could face pressure to act on the Common Core issue.

The opposition against the education standards, a set of academic goals from kindergarten through high school, began on the Republican side but has moved to be an issue in both major parties. According to Mead, Republicans think the federal government is overstepping and prescribing what teachers should teach. Democrats feel that the policy was developed through an undemocratic process that benefits big corporations and that it has been poorly implemented, with little preparation for the teachers or students, he added.

Common Core has become a buzzword over the past month. In 2013, 62 percent of people polled nationwide had never heard about it; in 2014, 80 percent of those polled said they had heard about it, and 47 percent indicated they had heard a great deal or a fair amount, according to a PDK/Gallup poll. Opposition has increased hand in hand with awareness: five out of 10 New York State residents answered that the implementation should be stopped in New York, according to the latest Siena Poll.

Cuomo has been challenged about it multiple times during the campaign. In the Democratic Party primaries, Zephyr Teachout, professor at Fordham University, campaigned against Common Core implementation. Cuomo won the primary but still faces opposition on the Common Core, this time from his Republican opponent, Rob Astorino, who has launched a “Stop Common Core” effort to rally voters against the cause.

After many months of not taking any clear stance on the matter, the Cuomo campaign released an ad on Monday pledging to “stop using Common Core scores for at least five years, and then only if our children are ready.” The campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The implementation of the standards

Katie Lapham, a first grade teacher at P.S. 214 in Brooklyn, says she understands the benefits of standards as a framework that gives teachers “freedom to teach and students … freedom to learn,” but she strongly opposes the Common Core standards as they are.

“Our schools need smaller class sizes, common sense curriculum, teacher-created curriculum and teacher-created authentic performance based assessments, project based, meaningful, inspiring work,” she said, adding that New York State has created fixed curricula, instead of only giving a general set of goals.
Lapham, member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators caucus within New York State United Teachers, worries that the curricula do not help her students, adding that the ReadyGEN ELA English Language Arts program is “dull and uninspiring.”

“The vocab is not appropriate for the lower grades,” Lapham said. “Spending five to seven days closely reading a picture book is boring; an ineffective way to promote literacy.” She has many English-language learners in her class and is worried that taking a test that reflects negatively on their learning will impact their confidence and increase the number of dropouts.

Garth Wolkoff, a teacher at the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn, said that a set of standards that helps the students “be more analytical thinkers rather than to memorize … can’t be bad.” He likes the idea of teachers teaching less subject matter, but more in depth, giving students more analytical skills, but he finds the standards oppressive at the elementary school level.

The standards are “asking very young students like Lucy to read and do more math,” Wolkoff said, referring to his 6-year-old daughter. “Playtime has been taken out of kindergarten, for example, and she is learning ‘Common Core’ math.”

Opting out

Parents and teachers are uniting to fight the Common Core tests. In April 2014, some teachers opted out of the test and many parents pulled their kids out of school the day of the test. Although there are no exact statistics yet, there were some 1,000 students who refused to take the math test in New York City, according to City Councilman Daniel Dromm. The Journal News reported that more than 3,000 students in the Lower Hudson Valley opted out, a fourfold increase compared with the previous year, according to the newspaper.

The MORE caucus within the teachers union is one of the most outspoken critics of the Common Core. The testing was “produced not by teachers, but by corporations,” MORE’s official statement reads. The movement argues that the standards “were written without meaningful teacher input, and educators do not have the freedom to use them as they see fit.”

Teachers and parents fear that the standards are too focused on “college and career readiness” to the detriment of “civic-mindedness, student health, and social and emotional growth,” according to the MORE statement.

Lapham said that, because of the emphasis on the tests, students “are not getting what they need both academically and emotionally.”

“If Cuomo is re-elected, expect more of the same,” Lapham added. “However, parents and teachers will continue to speak out. (The) grassroots movement is growing. Expect more and more opt-outs in the spring.”

Education standards are unlikely to be a decisive factor in the elections, but the Common Core will continue to be an issue in the political arena.

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By Carmen Cuesta Roca

A new political party will appear on ballots come Nov. 4: the Women’s Equality Party.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is the mastermind behind this creation, despite already belonging to the Democratic Party. The new group – an extension of his Women’s Equality Agenda, which the state legislature has not passed – has received mixed reviews not only from the Republican opposition, but also from women whose lives Cuomo proposes to better.

The 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda seeks to improve many aspects of women’s lives, including pay equity, access to abortion and protection for domestic abuse victims. The state legislature has not adopted any of the 10 points since Cuomo introduced them in January 2013.

With campaign season in full swing, Cuomo is once again promoting this agenda. The governor has visited Albany, Syracuse and Rochester in his tour bus, the “Women’s Equality Express.” He has also released a campaign ad with his three daughters and Sandra Lee, his girlfriend.

“New York State is the equality capital of the nation, but we still have more to do,” Cuomo said in a speech announcing the Women’s Equality Act. “Not everyone has reached full equality in our society.”

Gena Lovett, president of New York Women’s Agenda, supported Cuomo saying, “What is needed is a vigorous, collective effort to make New York the best place for women. Governor Cuomo’s 10-point Women’s Equality Act will help make that a reality.”

Cuomo’s opposition disagrees. Zephyr Teachout, who lost to Cuomo in the Democratic primary, said, “A lot of times I just see it as half a million dollars to get the name ‘Women’s Equality Party’ next to ‘Andrew Cuomo’ on the ballot—a high-priced advertisement.”

New York has not updated its abortion laws since 1970. The access to abortion provision of Cuomo’s agenda would permit late-term abortions on the grounds of preserving the mother’s health, including emotional and psychological factors. The current law allows abortions after 24 weeks only in order to save the mother’s life.

Support for Cuomo comes from those who are thrilled finally to have a prominent elected official who isn’t running away from the more controversial women’s issues, such as access to abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice New York has publicly endorsed Cuomo. Tara Sweeney, director of communications for the organization, said, “It is absolutely right and necessary that he championed a bill and a provision that will improve women’s lives and set a precedent for the kinds of legislation we should be passing.”

The anti-abortion community has spoken out against the bill. Executive director of NYS Right to Life, Lori Kehoe, said, “It makes clear the reality that this abortion ‘rights’ movement cares as little about women as they do about children.”

The Women’s Equality Agenda has been a hallmark of Cuomo’s work from the beginning of this legislative session, and “that stayed exactly the same when he transitioned into campaign mode,” according to Sweeney.

Under New York election law, candidates can run on multiple party lines, allowing their names to appear more than once on the ballot. Electoral fusion occurs when two or more political parties list the same candidate, pooling the votes and giving minor parties more influence over the results.

With the creation of this new party, the governor will appear on four ballot lines on Election Day: Women’s Equality, Democratic, Independence and Working Families. The last of these parties endorsed Cuomo after he suggested undoing his previous refusal to support a Democratic takeover of the Senate leadership. Cuomo said in a video shown during the Working Families Party convention in June, “To make this agenda a reality, we must change the Senate leadership.”

Cuomo recently endorsed his first Democratic candidate for the State Senate, Adrienne Esposito. But at a rally on Oct. 11, she was not offered a speaking spot. The rally promoted the Women’s Equality Party, a ballot line on which Esposito will not appear.

Supporters of Teachout issued a statement opposing the Women’s Equality Party: “This new party is not for women; instead it is using women for political play.”

Cuomo has exhibited strong leadership on same-sex marriage and gun control, but his economic policies have not always been favorable to women. Earlier this year he blocked New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to raise the city’s minimum wage. More than six in 10 of those workers are women, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Women are also the majority of workers in the hospitals that Cuomo has allowed to close.

Caron Gentry , an expert in feminist theory and gender studies who taught at Abilene Christian University in Texas and is now a lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said, “I think it’s great to raise awareness about issues, but if it is a ploy or a manipulation, then there is a problem in that the issue of gender is not understood in all its complexity or the promises will be abandoned.”

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By Nicki Fleischner

The speaker looked up at a PowerPoint slide that showed a funnel with two labels: “Latino population” at the wide top and “Latino voters” at the narrow bottom.

“The funnel is just how I think of it,” Angelo Falcón, president of the National Institute for Latino Policy, a nonpartisan group, told the audience. “Up top we have this enormous Latino population in the U.S., but then that trickles down to the number that are eligible to vote, fewer that are registered, and even fewer who actually cast a ballot.”

As Election Day, nears, questions of how to increase Latino voter turnout and address obstacles facing Latino voters have been pushed to the forefront. Falcón was one of four speakers at “The Latino Vote In 2014” panel on Oct. 15 hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan institute affiliated with New York University School of Law.

In the recent past, Latinos have strongly supported Democratic candidates — with President Barack Obama winning 71 percent of the Latino vote in 2012. But, with the failure of the Democratic Party to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the Latino vote may no longer be taken for granted.

On Nov. 4, the U.S. will hold midterm elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate, as well as other regional positions on a state-by-state basis. Democrats could lose their majority in the Senate, further polarizing the legislative and executive branches and impeding action in Washington.

As their population grows, Latinos have become an increasingly important voting bloc. According to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan group, Latinos make up 11.3 percent of eligible voters. Between now and 2030, Latinos are expected to account for 40 percent of the growth in the U.S. electorate.

Latinos have historically failed to turn out to vote, however. During the last midterm elections, in 2010, only 31.2 percent of eligible Latino voters cast their ballots, as compared with 44 percent of black voters and 48.6 of white voters.

The reasons behind this funnel effect are numerous, and Latino organizations are striving to combat this trend. Some organizations have used National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, as a platform for mobilizing the Latino community. Groups that work to educate and empower Latino citizens, such as Voto Latino and Make the Road New York, have held voter registration drives and used social media to encourage Latinos to make their voices heard.

“For our heritage, let’s defend our rights/reshape our Government #PowerofOurVote,” Rosario Dawson, Latina actress and Voto Latino chairwoman, tweeted on Oct. 10. Latinos are the nation’s youngest ethnic group, with the median age at 18. The #PowerofOurVote hashtag has become a part of the mobilization effort as organizations use Twitter to connect with young voters.

Daniel Altschuler, a coordinator for Make the Road New York, has registered over 5,000 Latinos since August.

“Our message to the people in the community resonates,” Altschuler said. “It is that people need to go out in November to vote for their families. The Latino community needs to expand its political muscle.”

Latinos have failed to register and vote for legal and logistical reasons.

“As a general demographic, Latinos and other low-income groups tend to move a lot and are unaware of the change-of-address forms necessary for renewing their voter status,” Altschuler said.

Myrna Peréz, a director at the Brennan Center for Justice, said that there is “a partisan and racial component” to new, stricter voter identification laws in states such as Texas.

Jorge Mursuli, a panelist representing Dominicanos USA, which works to educate and mobilize Dominican American voters, said that the issue goes far beyond “red” versus “blue” state, however.

“You would think that in a state like New York where Latinos have a relatively sure political footing things would be better,” Mursuli said. “But there have been many challenges.”

Mursuli described his experience during 2010 midterm elections when poor signage, lack of Latino poll workers and utter incompetence at poll sites deterred many registered voters. Of the dozen or so voting sites Mursuli visited in the Bronx, a borough of New York that is over 50 percent Latino, he saw not a single Latino poll worker.

“I saw voter suppression first hand,” Mursuli said. “And voter suppression does not happen to eighth generation white people. It just doesn’t.”

Beyond registration and Election Day issues, the national spotlight on immigration concerns may further impact Latino turnout on Nov. 4.

In a 2013 poll conducted by Latino Decisions, a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to Latino political opinion research, 75 percent of Latinos surveyed said it was extremely or very important for Congress and the president to address immigration reform within the year, even in light of other issues facing the government.

One year later, comprehensive immigration reform remains an unresolved issue. After Obama did not fulfill his promise to provide deportation relief to undocumented immigrants by the end of the summer, many Latinos became disillusioned.

“There is obviously grave disappointment with Congress and the Obama administration for not taking proactive steps to stop the separation of families,” Altschuler said.

According to Gallup Polls, Obama’s approval ratings have varied the most with Latinos over any other group since he won re-election in 2012. In December 2012, Obama had 75 percent approval rating among Latinos; his rating is now at 48.

Falcón said that there is no way to determine how Latino voters will respond to the immigration issue on Election Day, but it has become a large part of the conversation, with individuals and organizations promoting conflicting messages.

“Some say that now more than ever Latinos need to prove their political clout by voting,” Falcón said. “Others are as extreme as to say we should hold sit-ins this election, refuse to vote and prove to Democrats how much they need us.”

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