SUNNYSIDE, Wash.- It’s almost time to cast your votes in the 2024 Primary Election and ELLA Adelante is making Lower Yakima Valley residents know how to fill out their ballots.
At a ballot party in Sunnyside, ELLA Adelante volunteers helped the community to register to vote and filling in their ballots.
“We’re not telling people who to vote for,” says ELLA Adelante’s Executive Director Maria Fernandez. “We want to leave that up to them, but we want people to understand the mechanics of the ballot to make sure they’re filling it out correctly, so their vote is counted.”
Fernandez says one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to voting is that you have to fill out every slot on the ballot.
“If there is an initiative or a candidate they don’t prefer and they leave it blank, they think the entire ballot will be thrown out,” says Fernandez.
She says you can leave a slot blank if you don’t want to vote for it, and the rest of your votes will still be counted.
Importantly for Latino voters, ELLA Adelante emphasizes the importance of matching your signature to your voter registration.
“Because we know Latinos are disproportionately targeted for ballot throwaways,” says Fernandez. “We’ve done very aggressive campaign on signature matching. It is something we emphasize at our ballot parties it is something we emphasize when we go canvassing so people are aware that their signatures really do need to match their Washington state ids or their voter registration cards.”
ELLA also explains to voters the importance of their vote and the impact it has on their everyday lives.
“We are trying very hard to get our community to understand why it’s so important to vote,” says Fernandez “In the most practical way, these public leaders, have an effect on their daily lives and we’re trying to help people understand what that looks like in the most practical sense.”
