Frank X. Moraga
By Frank X. Moraga / Amigos805
The 2014 election season is rapidly coming to a close. Soon the repetitive television attack advertisements will cease and the growing forest of campaign signs on street corners will disappear — at least until the next election cycle.
For many, election overload leads to the feeling of just wanting to ignore the Nov. 4 Election Day and not vote at all.
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
While I would love to pass a Constitutional Amendment limiting campaigning to three months before any election day — with the option to bring back tar-and-feather punishment for violators — our electoral system is far better than in many places around the globe where elections are rigged (Syria with the president winning nearly 90 percent of the vote), where women aren’t allowed to vote at all (U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and nations where voters actually take their lives in their hands to go to a polling place (Afghanistan and Iraq).
Even in the United States it was at one time illegal for women to vote, with poll taxes and literacy tests used to discourage would-be Black voters.
Even today, the frenzy by some to require a voter photo ID could potentially drive away thousands of would-be voters who do not drive, are not close enough to locations where government-issued IDs are available or have long since retired and are living in nursing homes with no need for IDs.
All this for a minuscule number of voter fraud violations?
(Time for the government to issue everyone a high-tech, chip-encrypted, photo Social Security Card. Sign me up).
Yes, it’s easy to take for granted the opportunity to vote in a free election.
But too many of our citizens have protested, fought, been beaten or have died for that right and so we do a great disservice to their memories by sitting on the couch and making lame excuses for not filling out the absentee ballots or heading down the street to our polling places. Maybe one day technology will make it secure and easy to click that voting app on our smartphone during a commercial break of our favorite sitcom or sporting event.
Until then, get off the couch, get into your car or walk down the street and VOTE!!! It’s the least we can do to honor the sacrifices of those who have gone before us….
Latinos / Hispanics and the vote
Just in time for Election Day, the Pew Research Center has come out with new polling information on Latino / Hispanic voting trends.
The upshot is that Hispanic support for Democrats continues to fall, with Hispanic support for Republicans rising slightly. However, Democrats continue to maintain a large advantage over Republicans, with 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters planning to support a Democrat Congressional candidate. That compares to 28 percent for Republican candidates. The most recent figures compare to 65 percent for Democrats and 22 percent for Republicans during the 2010 Congressional elections.
The Pew survey of 1,520 Hispanic adults, including 733 registered voters, also provides information on changing political party affiliations, interest by Hispanics in Congressional immigration reform and the resolve of Hispanics to vote in elections.
The survey, released on Oct. 29, makes for great read as Latinos look back on where they have been on the political spectrum and where they are heading. It also provides some comfort and discomfort to various political parties.
Please view the full report at http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/10/29/latino-support-for-democrats-falls-but-democratic-advantage-remains/
— Frank X. Moraga is editor/publisher of Amigos805. He has served as business editor, director of diversity and general manager of a bilingual publication at the Ventura County Star, and as a reporter in the community editions of the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News. He can be reached at fmoraga@amigos805.com