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After going through the bureaucratic maze of citizenship, voting is a natural and easy step for immigrants who often become citizens to gain the right to vote, said Paul Beck, political science professor at Ohio State University.
"People who have gone through the citizenship process, it’s going to carry over into voter registration as well," he said. "They will be so strongly motivated."
Immigrant groups have been preparing new citizens for the election, while the two major parties have been courting them.
The Somali American United Council of Ohio registered with the secretary of state’s office in May. The nonpartisan group educates Somalis about the democratic process, said Mussa Farah, one of the founders.
"We have social organizations, but we have abandoned the political side," he said. "Voting is the best tool people have, but they have never used it."
There are at least 35,000 immigrants and refugees from the eastern Africa nation in central Ohio, said Ahmed M. Yusef, another founder of the group, and 16,000 of them are citizens. The group, which has been conducting a census of the community, has registered about 4,000 to vote. The council also is developing the Somali Political Action Committee to focus on issues such as immigration, health care, public safety and homeland security.
For the past three months, another nonprofit group, Helping Africans in a New Direction, has registered about 4,600 Somalis to vote, said Mahdi A. Taakilo, president of the group and The Somali Link newspaper. The group is to sponsor a political forum at 6 p.m. Oct. 28 at Mifflin Middle School.
"It brought a lot of confidence to Somalis to talk to these people and meet them," Taakilo said of the group’s meetings with candidates. "People are getting to know there are people who care about them."
After a meeting last month with about 40 Democratic and Republican candidates and representatives, about 600 Somalis realized the importance of their vote, said Hassan Omar, president of the Somali Community Association of Ohio, which sponsored the event.
"They see that people need to hear from you and that in the United States, unless you become a voter, you are not part of the political process," he said.
The recent issue of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition’s newsletter, which was sent to 3,000 people, included information encouraging Latinos to vote in November.
Immigrants especially need to make a statement to lawmakers about immigration legislation, said Julia Arbini Carbonell, president of the coalition.
Her message to immigrants: "You can’t be part of the solution if you abstain."
There are about 50,000 Latinos in central Ohio. However, the coalition has no record of how many are registered voters.
Proposed legislation that would criminalize illegal immigration prompted thousands to take to the streets in protest this spring. If the immigration debate continues, it could have a slight impact on how many new citizens go to the polls, Beck said.
Foreign-born citizens accounted for 1.6 percent of Ohio’s voters in 2000. More than 76,000 of the 96,384 foreign-born citizens who were registered went to the polls, according to a 2004 study released by the Immigration Policy Center.
Political parties also are tapping into the emerging pool of voters.
The Ohio Democratic Party has been advertising in Latino newspapers, printing campaign literature in Spanish and canvassing precincts with heavy Latino populations, said Randy Borntrager, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.
For 2006, the Ohio Democratic Party is "spending more money and time with the getout-the-vote effort for minority outreach efforts than ever before," Borntrager said.
Republicans have been holding fundraisers in private homes for Latino immigrants to meet politicians, said John Perez, chairman of the Ohio Hispanic Republican Assembly.
The assembly also has helped spread the Republican message to Latinos through phone calls and party literature printed in Spanish, said Perez, a Columbus lawyer.
Franklin County Board of Elections employees have met with Latino and Somali groups to instruct them about voteridentification requirements, early voting options and use of the new voting machines, said Lillian Williams, public-relations manager for the board.
In 2004, there were seven poll workers in the county who spoke Spanish, Somali or Russian, said Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder.
The board wants to recruit more bilingual poll workers. They must be registered voters, and they are paid $15 for training and $95 a day. [email protected]
Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Oct 2, 2006