Hopes Frustrated, Many Latinos Reject the Ballot Box Altogether
By JACKIE CALMES MARCH 30, 2014
![Lizeth Chacon of Aurora, Colo., who signs up Latinos to vote, reports growing disinterest in registration.]( "Lizeth Chacon of Aurora, Colo., who signs up Latinos to vote, reports growing disinterest in registration.")
Lizeth Chacon of Aurora, Colo., who signs up Latinos to vote, reports growing disinterest in registration.
AURORA, Colo. — As the weather warms, Lizeth Chacon is anticipating a new season of registering Latino voters — yet dreading experiences like one late last year, when she came upon a skate park full of older teenagers.
“I thought, ‘The perfect age! They’re turning 18,’ ” said Ms. Chacon, just 26 herself, born in Mexico and now the lead organizer at Rights for All People, a local immigrant organizing group. But among the roughly 50 people she approached in this increasingly diverse city east of Denver, “not a single person” was interested in her pitch, including those already old enough to vote: “They were like, ‘Why? Why would I bother to vote?’ ”
Man for man, Mexicans are not the most formidable political opponents a party can have.
