ACTS-CNY

Group works to raise immigrant voter turnout
ACTS wants minorities’ concerns heard by candidates in 25th Congressional Dist.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
By Maureen Sieh
Urban affairs editor

A Syracuse-based interfaith coalition which works to address health, education, economic and other social barriers affecting minorities has launched a voter registration drive and outreach to increase immigrant voter participation in the upcoming 25th Congressional District election.

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse has hired a full-time community organizer to canvass 13,000 voters with Middle Eastern, Latino and Asian surnames.

The group identified the voters through a 2006 election database from the Onondaga County Board of Elections, said Andres Kwon, lead organizer of ACTS. The goal is a 20 percent increase in participation by immigrants who have become U.S. citizens, he said.

Julio Urrutia Jr., the new community organizer, began calling the immigrant voters last week to remind them to vote. Between now and Nov. 4, ACTS hopes to contact at least 5,000 of those voters five times through phone bank and direct mailing, Kwon said.

“What we’re doing is building (the) political power of underrepresented constituencies,” he said. “Politicians and elected officials are not going to adhere to a constituency if they’re not voting. If you’re here, you have to practice the basic right which is to vote.”

The immigrant voters will also be invited to ACTS’ annual public meeting planned for Oct. 26 at Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave. The group invites elected officials to commit to addressing issues affecting the urban community.

ACTS has also teamed up with Service Employees International Union and Citizens Action, a grass-roots group which works on social justice issues, to register African-American, Latino and Asian voters on the city’s South, North and Near West sides.

Urrutia, 22, who graduated in May from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in international relations, said he’s been knocking on doors as well as making phone calls.

He’s registered 18-year-olds who will be voting for the first time. In some cases, new residents have moved and some of them are not registered voters.

“It’s been great seeing people who are new to the process get involved and get excited about the electoral process,” Urrutia said. “The excitement is there, it’s just a matter of tapping into it.”

The local effort is part of a national campaign to turn out 1 million immigrant voters across the country. The national campaign spearheaded by the We Are America Alliance, an immigrant rights advocacy group, was launched Wednesday in observance of National Citizenship Day.

The goal is to engage immigrants in the electoral process and pressure elected officials to pass immigration reform, one of the hottest issues in the country.

From 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today, about 30 immigrant rights activists groups from around the state will gather at Plymouth Congregational Church in Syracuse to discuss a range of issues affecting immigrants- racial profiling on trains and buses, the lack of health care for migrant workers and the impact of immigration raids on families.

Kwon said ACTS wants to ensure that underrepresented groups participate in the elections because this is the first time in 20 years that there’s an open seat in the 25th Congressional District, which includes Syracuse and its suburbs.

Three candidates are vying for the seat being vacated by Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga. The three are Dan Maffei, a Democrat; Dale Sweetland, a Republican, and Howie Hawkins, of the Green Party.

At 2 p.m. today, Maffei and Sweetland will meet with ACTS’ clergy caucus - 20 faith leaders. When the group invited Maffei and Sweetland a month ago, Hawkins wasn’t on the ballot, Kwon said. Hawkins will be invited to the Oct. 26 public meeting.
Maureen Sieh can be reached at msieh@syracuse.com or 470-2159.