Barnes backing bid to raise Latino vote

Web posted June 30, 1999

By James Salzer
Morris News Service

ATLANTA -- Gov. Roy Barnes is joining with Hispanic leaders in backing a drive to register members of Georgia's fastest-growing minority to vote.

Mr. Barnes also announced Tuesday that advertising and outreach campaigns will be developed to make sure Latino and inner-city black Georgians who were missed in the 1990 Census get counted next year.

The governor estimated the state lost at least $1 billion this decade in federal funding and possibly a congressional seat because those communities were not fully accounted for by census takers In 1990.

``It's not going to happen like before. We were not counted,'' said Sora McFarlane, a Venezuela native who is heading up the Georgia Hispanic Voter Registration Campaign.

Mr. Barnes' motives are not entirely altruistic. Hispanics will be the country's largest minority group in a few years, with more than one million projected to be living in Georgia in a little more than a decade.

Non-Cuban Hispanics have historically supported Democrats like Mr. Barnes.

Mr. Barnes acknowledged Democrats are likely to benefit from the registration efforts.

``I don't think I'm registering a bunch of Republicans,'' Mr. Barnes said in announcing his support for the drive.

Georgia's Hispanic population is estimated at 475,000, a figure expected to double in 10 years.

The Secretary of State's office doesn't even keep separate registration information on Hispanics or Asians, so it's difficult to determine their participation levels in Georgia elections.

Voters are broken down into five categories: black female, black male, white female, white female, and others. Only 62,000 of Georgia's 3.5 million voters registered in the last category. Richmond and Columbia counties are among the Georgia counties with at least 1,000 registered voters in the ``other'' grouping.

The Secretary of State's office plans to put out voter registration information in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese to help capture new voters.