BALTIMORE service union mobilizing Hispanics to the polls

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.examiner.com/a-371269~Service_union_mobilizing_Hispanics_to_the_polls.html

Service union mobilizing Hispanics to the polls
14 hrs ago Service union mobilizing Hispanics to the polls

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Dena Levitz, The Examiner
Oct 31, 2006 5:00 AM (14 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 1,357 of 7,433 articles
BALTIMORE - In the wake of a major national effort to mobilize immigrant voters, the region’s 8,000-member service employee union is in the midst of its own local effort.

The Service Employees International Union is making phone calls, door-to-door stops, and for those non-U.S. citizens who can’t vote themselves, calling those friends in the Hispanic community who can and spurring them to the polls, District Chair Jaime Contreras said.

Many resist because they lack faith in the system based in their own cultural experiences, have language barriers and don’t know how to become a citizen.

Contreras said the union is trying to educate its members on these and other topics. By far the largest contingent of the group’s members are in Maryland, where the union has an office in Silver Spring.

Hispanics in Maryland represent about 5 percent of the population and about 2.5 percent of its eligible voters — or 95,000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Nationwide at this point there are 6.4 million immigrants who vote infrequently, and 5 million who could vote, but who are not registered.

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