Local organizations encouraging people to register to vote

Local organizations are not only canvassing Texas and New Mexico for residents to register to vote, but are also encouraging people to show up at the polls.

Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) Policy Director Robert Heyman said the campaign is called, “We Vote Because We Care.

BNHR is hoping to register at least 1,000 people in both Texas and New Mexico. “Our community needs to mobilize to make sure its voice is heard in defense of our values, our family, of opportunity, of human dignity. These things that bind us together as Americans,” Heyman said.

So far, the campaign has registered 171 people in the El Paso area. It has also trained 12 registrars in New Mexico.

“When you’re working at the scale of a neighborhood, of a community, all of those individuals, really start to add up,” Heyman added, “They really start to become something greater than themselves, and start to have an impact to really change the world.”

El Paso County Republican Party Chairman Adolpho Telles told ABC-7 they are always encouraging people to vote. The party is currently in the process of training more registrars for an upcoming event in El Paso.

Last week, the organization registered people to vote at the Naturalization Ceremony at the County Coliseum, where nearly 1,000 people were welcomed as new citizens. It will be at the next ceremony in August.

These are the rules for registering people to vote:

A volunteer registrar must be appointed by a deputy registrar Registrar must go through training Must be 18 years or older, not have been convicted of a felony Can only hand out forms in the county they collect forms Review form for completeness, can only write on form if it is allowed by applicant Must give a receipt Must submit application no later than 5:00 P.M. of the fifth day after the date the application is submitted to the volunteer deputy registrar

For more in depth rules and regulations, click here and search “registrars.”