[ad_1]
Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans in Florida are registered in mid-term elections in November and former Hamilton's main actor, Javier Muñoz, wants to make sure they have all the proper identifiers when They will go to the polls.
"There is no doubt that many Puerto Ricans are facing great challenges, again a year after Hurricane Maria," Muñoz told NBC News. "These challenges can be affected by our vote. The people we have put in place will help us identify the resources we could have to help us rebuild and get the health care we need. "
For this reason, Muñoz, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, to Puerto Rican parents, is associated with Spread The Vote for a voter identification law campaign in Florida. and on the need to obtain the appropriate documents before polling day. . The non-partisan 501c3 non-profit organization helps people obtain identity cards issued by the government for voting and for other purposes.
Muñoz plays a role in a PSA campaign to be launched Wednesday
Florida is one of the 20 states in the country that requires ID to be able to vote in elections. The state law requires all voters that they provide an acceptable form of photo ID and a signature. If such an identity photo does not include a signature, the voter will be asked to provide a second piece of identification bearing his or her signature.
A Florida driver's license or identification cards, US passports, debit or credit cards, military identity and student identity are some of the forms of identity that the State of Florida accepts in the polling stations.
But half a million eligible voters in Florida do not have this type of valid ID, according to Kat Calvin, founder of Spread The Vote, especially Puerto Ricans who fled after Hurricane Maria.
"People were fleeing for their lives," Muñoz said. "Imagine how many people had to leave their passports, student cards," he said.
More than 200,000 Puerto Ricans left the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. According to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, nearly 160,000 former islanders have been transferred to the United States. More than 56,000 people have settled specifically in Florida and many have settled in the Orlando area, which already hosts hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans. They joined a massive wave that began in 2006 after the island's economic crisis, pushing Puerto Rican population from 479,000 in 2000 to more than one million by 2015, according to the Pew Research Center .
Get a good identity card, some from the island
Calvin told NBC that many Puerto Ricans had lost documents and various forms of identification after a disaster. This has prompted him to recruit volunteers on the ground in Puerto Rico. In order for Puerto Ricans in Florida to obtain the appropriate state identifications, the documents required for these processes, such as birth certificates, proof of residence, medical records and DMV records, must be notarized in the 39; island.
"People usually get an ID card for immediate needs, like getting a job or asking for housing," Calvin said. "Once they have that, they start looking at how their island was treated after the hurricane and now they have the power to change that."
Puerto Ricans being born with American citizenship, they are eligible to register on the continent. And with the proper voter IDs, Puerto Ricans can vote in any state, including Florida, where their vote could have a significant impact in the mid-term elections.
"Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico do not have the right to vote in the presidency or in Congress, but when they are here [U.S.]they do it, "said Muñoz. "Even though they have so much to do, it's important that they take the time to vote."
Up to now, at least 77,000 Latinos are enrolled to vote in Florida next month. More than half of them identified themselves as Puerto Ricans, said Marcos Vilar, president and executive director of Alianza for Progress.
Alianza for progress, a non-partisan coalition of organizations defending issues of importance to Puerto Ricans as one of the most influential electoral demographic groups, told NBC News that the latest voter registration figures are based on the number of voters member organizations registered by Alianza.
Vilar called this figure "historic for a mid-year".
"I think this year's peak is related to how the Latin American community reacts to the current political climate. Many think that they have been flouted, "Vilar said in Spanish. "That's one of the reasons we created 'Respeta Mi Gente. ' "
Alianza for Progress' Respeta Mi Gente, Spanish for respect my people, is a campaign to strengthen the political power of the growing share of Puerto Rican voters in Florida.
"Not all Latinos have the same political perspective but regardless of how they vote, they will have a determining factor in the election," Vilar said.
FOLLOW NBC LATINO ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM.
[ad_2]Source link
