HispanicBusiness

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In the hotly contested state of Florida, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), the nation's oldest Latino voter registration organization, has increased voter registration among Latinos by more than 13,000, bringing their nationwide total this year to 100,000 new Latino voters.

"This year's presidential election will be decided block by block, precinct by precinct across a handful of states and Latinos will be there to help decide the outcome," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of SVREP. "With two weeks left to go before the election, Latinos are poised to make a significant contribution toward deciding the winner of the presidential contest. Based on the voter registration data we've seen, the Latino community will likely reach 10 million registered voters, which translates to over 7 million votes cast nationwide."

Nationally, SVREP will net 100,000 newly registered Latinos, with more than 57,000 registered in contested battleground states. In the all important battleground state of New Mexico, SVREP registered nearly 17,000 new Latino voters, followed by Colorado (10,000), Arizona (8,800), and Washington State (4,300), among others.

"Since the 2000 presidential election, the Latino community has been the fastest growing electorate in the country," added Gonzalez. "This year's election will be marked not only by the unprecedented increase in voter registration, but more importantly by the GOTV effort to turn out the Latino vote on Election Day."

For SVREP's part, it will have 15-20 phone banks up and running to complement the near 50 walk programs slated for Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon and California from now until election day. Additionally, SVREP is currently running a national radio and television PSA campaign featuring Esai Morales and has embarked on a new program called Con Cinco Se Gana, a contest where volunteers who convince at least 5 people to vote on Election Day can be eligible to win a new Ford Mustang.

"This election is too important to sit idly by and watch on the sidelines. We're pulling out all the stops to drive Latino voter participation up," concluded Gonzalez.

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) is a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization committed solely to the political empowerment of Latino communities through voter registration, voter education and voter participation. SVREP was established in 1974 by the late Willie Velasquez to encourage civic and political participation in Latino and other underrepresented communities. Since its inception, SVREP has registered over 2.2 million Latino voters throughout the southwest and Florida. SVREP has offices in San Antonio, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona. Visit http://www.svrep.org/ for more information. Southwest Voter Registration Education Project