Voter drive coming to Valley Stream

Civic engagement groups team up to register minority voters

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Multiple voter outreach groups from around the New York metro area are doing their part to register as many minority voters as possible in advance of this year’s state and local elections. Next weekend, their efforts will reach Valley Stream, as volunteers from several organizations will take to the streets to get the word out.

“We’re planning on registering hundreds of voters in the Valley Stream area,” said Alejandra Sorto, a community organizer working in Nassau County with the Long Island Civic Engagement Table. “We know there are quickly-growing Hispanic- and African-American populations there and we believe they deserve to have their voices heard in the election and by their officials.”

Representatives from the group, typically clad in blue shirts adorned with the name of their organizations, will be in the area this weekend and next week, according to Sorto. Representatives, many of whom speak both English and Spanish, will be moving throughout the village, trying to register as many voters as possible.

“We’ll be in as many public places as possible…places like parks, the DMV, local community college campuses,” she said. “We’ll be approaching people, letting them know who we are and what we’re doing, and try to do as much as possible to answer any questions they have.”

The local effort is part of a larger movement to register voters throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties and New York City. Members of Make The Road NY, New York Communities for Change, Strong Youth, Sepa Mujer and the Long Island Civic Engagement Table, along with smaller groups from around the region, hope to register thousands of voters throughout the summer.

The activists hope to motivate any new voters to cast their ballots for candidates who support reforms to the police and educational justice systems and the immigration. The effort formally kicked off earlier this month, when the groups held a rally featuring signs with messages like “vote for respect.”

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