Group Turns in 250,000 Names From New Voter Registration Drive

A grass-roots activist organization that grew out of Democratic U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s successful 1986 reelection campaign on Friday turned in affidavits for more than 250,000 new registered voters in California, heralding the effort as a milestone for ethnic minorities.

About 73% of the new voters are black, Latino or Asian, prompting officials of the nonprofit Los Angeles-based Center for Participation in Democracy to proclaim their effort a beginning of new political power for such impoverished areas as Watts, East Los Angeles and Echo Park.

Half of the new voters were registered in Los Angeles County, which has 3.5 million voters. Statewide, about 28% of California’s 12.5 million voters are Latino, black or Asian.

‘Hope for Minorities’

“What this is is hope for minorities . . . and our communities,” CPD Executive Director Victor Griego told about 100 clapping, chanting volunteers as forms for 128,397 new county voters were turned in at the registrar-recorder’s office in City of Commerce.

“Who did this?” Griego called out.

“We did,” the volunteers screamed back.

The scene was reminiscent of the fervor that marked community activist meetings of the 1960s and ‘70s. And even County Registrar Charles Weissburd got into the act.

He told the group that its work was “overwhelming.”

“This is one of the most fantastic jobs of voter registration that we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Weissburd said that with the CPD’s help, a record number of people may join the voter rolls in the county before the Oct. 11 deadline, surpassing the 1.1 million record set in 1984.

Also on Friday, the organization turned in forms for new voters in eight other California counties--Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Fresno, Sacramento, Alameda, San Francisco and Santa Clara.

Weissburd said the vast majority of the new sign-ups will be validated, with a small fraction thrown out, mainly because they are not residents of Los Angeles County.

Increase Political Power

In recent years, various groups in Los Angeles County have mounted voter registration efforts in minority communities to increase political power in those areas, but they have achieved only limited success.

For example, the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project targeted 216,000 Latinos in Los Angeles County who were not registered to vote in 1984, but the effort fell way short.

And this year, the group again is trying to attract new voters. But so far it has registered about 12,000 voters in eastern Los Angeles County, project coordinator David Trujillo said.

Trujillo added, however, that his group’s effort is operating on an estimated $100,000 budget while the CPD, aided by Cranston’s personal lobbying with private foundations and other donors, has a budget of $2 million.

The CPD was formed in July, 1987, by campaign workers who helped reelect Cranston to a third term in the U.S. Senate. Among them were Griego, a veteran community organizer, and Marshall Ganz, who started in politics with the United Farm Workers in the 1960s.

Although the group is closely identified with the senior California senator--his son Kim sits on its governing board--CPD is nonpartisan, Griego said.

Democrats are likely to be the chief beneficiaries of this voter registration drive. About 70% of the 250,000 signed up as Democrats.

Some Criticism Leveled

The registration effort, which began Feb. 22, has drawn some criticism from some Chicano activists who charged that the Cranston-influenced campaign has undercut other minority voter registration efforts, especially the Southwest Voters’ campaign in California.

But Griego defended the CPD effort.

“This isn’t just a voter registration campaign,” he said. “We also have projects for naturalization, policy reform and citizenship education.”

The CPD workers who came to the registrar’s office praised the campaign.

“It was a great way to learn leadership skills and help out the community,” said Joel Romero, 21, a student at Cal Poly Pomona who worked six days a week, eight hours a day registering voters in the East Los Angeles area.

Alfonzo Gordon, 22, registered voters in his own South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood and saw the effort as a way to empower minority communities.

“I tried to encourage people to see that they have a voice,” Gordon said. “The people in Beverly Hills stand up for their rights. The people in our communities need to understand their positions as citizens.”