Alberto Ramos Cordero and Micaela Barrett have been out canvassing 20 hours per week over the last few months. They recently spent time roaming Ward 12 on Cleveland's southwest side, home to a high concentration of Latino residents. They've been working to raise the Latino voter turnout for the November election.
Cordero and Barrett, who are members of Cleveland’s Young Latino Network, arrived for a recent shift around 3:30 p.m., parking their car at the corner of West 20th Street and Natchez Avenue in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood. They’ve been going from house to house, often knocking to no response.
Cordero slipped a “Sorry We Missed You!” card into one door crack, gave a final knock, then turned and walked away.
Finally, at the sixth house, a woman answered the door. Cordero spoke to her about the upcoming election and explained how she can get an absentee ballot.
“She's been in the continental U.S. and Cleveland for about a year,” Cordero said. “Her daughter had already received her ballot, but she had not, so we managed to scoop her up and make sure that she had access to the ballot box.”
Understanding the Latino voting bloc
Latino voters are growing at the second-fastest rate of any major racial and ethnic group in the U.S. electorate, according to Pew Research Center. This year, an estimated 36.2 million Latino residents are eligible to vote.
The Young Latino Network is looking to increase those numbers. Members have been attending community events, phone banking and canvassing to make sure Cleveland’s Latino residents are prepared for the Nov. 5 election. The organization has registered 153 new voters to date. They’ve also collected over 1,200 pledge-to-vote cards and returned 81 vote-by-mail applications.
Alma Rodriguez is a student at Cleveland State University studying political science. When she’s not studying, she’s working as the Civic Engagement Coordinator for the Young Latino Network. Rodriguez said canvassing helps the organization discover how Latino voters feel about the upcoming election and what issues are important to them. Immigration, the economy, LGBTQ+ rights and policy rights in Puerto Rico are among the top issues, she said.
Despite their passion for those issues, turnout is low among Latino voters. Only 30.5% of Latino voters cast a ballot in the 2022 midterm elections, compared to 52.8% of White voters and 40.6% of Black voters. Language has been a big barrier for Latino voters, Rodriguez said.
“There aren’t resources that are in Spanish,” Rodriguez said. “That is something that we were striving to work on and we continue to work on, especially with having people sign pledge cards. We provide them with information that is majority in Spanish, so it's accessible to all.”
Disillusionment and disenfranchisement of Latino voters
Language gaps may not be the only explanation for low turnout. Communities formerly affected by disinvestment and redlining often have lower voter turnout numbers, according to the Center of Community Solutions. About 22% percent of Latino residents were living below the poverty line in 2022, more than double the rate of White people, according to Policy Matters Ohio.
Structural barriers often keep low-income residents and communities of color from the polls. These voters often don’t have adequate childcare or the ability to take time off from work to go to the polls, said Emily Campbell, president and CEO of the Center for Community Solutions.
“If I want to go vote, I get in my car, I can go to the poll,” Campbell said. “I can wait in line for as long as it takes. I can be late to work without a consequence. That's not the case for thousands of people living in Cleveland's neighborhoods.”
These barriers can cause Latino voters to become disillusioned by the political process, Campbell noted. Witnessing disinvestment and policy failures in the community could result in Latino voters skipping the polls on Election Day.
“I can certainly understand why people in some of Cleveland's neighborhoods may feel like their voice isn't heard or that it doesn't matter,” Campbell said. “We are talking about residents who may have spent their whole lives living in neighborhoods where they have watched the impacts of disinvestment, whether they are potholes in the streets or property values that are going down.”
Members of the Young Latino Network said they’ve encountered these apathetic attitudes while canvassing. Camila Fox Gonzalez, communications coordinator for the Young Latino Network, said she spoke with someone who didn’t want to vote because of mistreatment from other neighbors.
“Someone didn't want to vote at all because they were mistreated and people thought that they were here to take their jobs,” Gonzalez said. “'They're not even going to make laws for you. They don't want to help you, so why am I going to vote if I could just keep my head down and help my family?' That's the vision that a lot of people have.”
Securing a better future for Latino voters
Members of the Young Latino Network are confident they can make a difference in their communities. Rodriguez said encouraging Latino residents to vote has helped her become more engaged in her community, and even inspired her to go to law school after graduation to continue this work.
“Having this experience and talking to people within my community helps me learn about the direct issues that we really need to work on,” Rodriguez said.
After the November election, the Young Latino Network is still looking for ways to remain politically active in Latino communities.
“The issues are constantly changing,” Gonzalez said. “We did help with the abortion laws last year, so we just want to keep educating our community about the different issues since there's not that much information in Spanish. The need is there and we want to provide as much help as we can."
Cordero and Barrett both believe that canvassing can lead to other ways to help.
“[Canvassing has] been super rewarding,” Cordero said. “Just seeing us in the neighborhood, hearing us talk Spanish, hearing that we exist, you know, there's a lot of ways in which this has been a positive.”
For now, it’s on to the next door to make sure Latino residents are ready for Nov. 5.
