New Citizen's Cast Their Vote

Wow! It's amazing what a little election fever will do encourage ALL people to go out and register to vote. The results of this election are sure to affect everyone alike. So it's no wonder that so many new citizens want to have their voices heard. The chart above detailing how many new American's have registered to vote in California in the past year and several months is quite impressive.

But it's not only in California, Hundred of thousands of new citizens around the nation are registered and excited to vote in the upcoming election. To help get citizens to the polls, community groups are organizing phone banks and multilingual informational pamphlets to guide them through the process. New citizens need help with the basic logistics like how to fill out the forms and how to locate the polling places.

Spanish language media is also helping to promote voting in their community. According to the LA Times, 1 million voting cards were inserted in newspapers over one weekend in California last month. And Univision is airing radio and television ads featuring the stories of people who recently became citizens.

But it is not just the Latino community that is reaching out. According to the LA Times, Asian American groups have published pamphlets in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Registered voters are also getting a phone call in their native language to encourage them to vote.

Although California's voter registration deadline was Monday, new citizens going through the naturalization process this week have until next Monday to turn in their voter registration forms, according the LA County Registrar's office.

Encouraging diversity in the election could be enough for one candidate to win it. Minority voters are making up a growing share of the population. And Obama is doing better overall with Hispanic and Asian American voters than McCain. "In many ways demographic differences are the raw material for party politics," said John Green, director of the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.