LOS ANGELES - Three vans filled with L.A. community college students, union workers, and faith volunteers will depart Los Angeles today to spend the weekend in Arizona registering voters for the November 2010 election. The L.A. to Arizona voter registration weekend developed out of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s solidarity trip to Arizona to oppose SB 1070 on July 29, the day that parts of the anti-immigrant law went into effect.
In Arizona, the Los Angeles group will be hosted by Promise Arizona and will sleep at St. Matthews Church in downtown Phoenix. At St. Matthews Church, they will receive a briefing on SB 1070. They will be trained on how to register Arizona voters. Then they will spend the weekend registering voters in Phoenix at various locations including Fiestas Patrias, a celebration to commemorate Mexican Independence. The group will return to Los Angeles on Sunday evening.
“According to our research and polling of Latino voters in Los Angeles from all political parties, almost 70% are concerned that a bill like SB 1070 could pass in California unless we do something to stop it,” says Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation, AFL-CIO. “We believe it is important to help groups like Promise Arizona in their efforts to organize and register the Latino community to vote in Arizona. We also know it is crucial that we turnout the Latino vote for Jerry Brown for Governor this November in order to stop SB 1070 from happening in California. That is what these volunteers will focus on when they return.”
The Arizona voter registration weekend is sponsored by the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers Local 1521, and Promise Arizona.
