How organizations are mobilizing the youth in Puerto Rico

Due to Puerto Rico’s State Electoral Commission’s lack of an educational campaign, multiple initiatives have been formed to incentivize young people to vote.

By: Deborah Rodríguez

This report is part of the Papeleta Report. Papeleta is the Spanish word for a ballot and Papeleta Report is a series that informs people in and outside of Puerto Rico about the events and crucial details surrounding the next general elections in the archipelago. Subscribe to receive our newsletter with reflections on the stories we write.

The year 2019 marked a new cycle for Puerto Rican politics, and in 2020, it is expected that voters, mainly people under 45 years old, will express themselves through their vote.

This group has experienced all of the country’s recent crises. They grew up in an era of economic instability and developed as professionals with a lack of dignified employment options, they lived through Hurricane María, one of the Nation’s most devastating natural disasters, and, in the summer of 2019, were the ones to start a movement to impeach the then governor, Ricardo Roselló.

Without a doubt, this generation has a lot to say and their vote will matter. There are a total of 2,355,894 eligible voters, and at least 974,928 are below the age of 45, according to the State Electoral Commission (CEE by its Spanish acronym). Essentially, this group makes up more than a third of the eligible voter population for the November 3rd elections.

However, efforts to register and educate citizens about how to vote have been limited to online posts by the CEE. This is greatly due to a $9 million budget cut for the institution. In total, the agency was assigned $29 million, destined mainly for payroll.

The government itself made little effort to explain the changes in the new Electoral Code nor to make up for the 95 days the Permanent Registration Committee office was closed due to COVID-19. After multiple attempts, the Press Office declined to talk to 9 Millones.

This scene, in which the government fails to meet their purpose, is familiar to Alejandro Silva Díaz, executive director of Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción (MPA). The organization’s name means Puerto Rican Minds in Action and its mission is to empower youth and link their projects with the development of Puerto Rico.

“During María, citizens and non-profit organizations took on the role of first responders. After the earthquakes, citizens mobilized en masse to help those most affected. It’s been the same during the elections, citizens have said “look, the role of education, involvement, and analysis will be take up by us.’”

To mobilize this group, a collective of organizations, initiatives, and non-party projects got together to facilitate this information in the face of the general election.

Step 1: Electoral Code Education

In March 2020, La Clara started an educational campaign that has closely followed the electoral process.

La Clara started as an Amnesty International campaign focused on educating people between the ages of 18 to 34 regarding civil rights. Currently, it is an independent collective that still educates about civil rights but is not limited to that. It also inserts itself in conversations regarding current topics.

“Before the New Year, we thought about what topics would be relevant or important. We considered the election as an obvious point, especially the right to vote and voter participation, and beyond that, educating from a non-party perspective. So we started to toy around with the idea of the 2020 La Clara campaign,” explained Carla Margarita Pérez Meléndez, co-founder of the collective.

La Clara’s first steps in 2020 had the objective of using social media to educate citizens about the proposal for the changes to the Electoral Code nine months before the general election. They made various posts which “didn’t do poorly, but personally, I would’ve liked to have seen them go further and have a bigger impact because I thought and still think that the Electoral Code has some great flaws,” said Meléndez Pérez, Law student at the University of Puerto Rico.

La Clara did not give up after this first attempt. Although the Electoral Code was approved, they would continue with their educational campaign.

Step 2: Register Young Voters

Part of the CEE’s tasks includes incentivizing newer generations to practice their right to vote. In the past, CEE sent its resources to schools, universities, and places often visited by the youth. However, that didn’t happen during these last four years under the Government’s current administration.

There were also no integral attempts to communicate the process of registering nor the changes in the ways we vote. La Clara, once more, took on the task of orienting and encouraging citizens to vote.

The collective created a “Guide for getting your voter card,” which spread through WhatsApp, email, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The guide is available in both Spanish and English and explains the registration process in detail. Furthermore, they published detailed information regarding how to request absentee and early voter ballots.

“We tried to socialize it as much as we could and we asked people to document their process while getting their voter card,” commented Meléndez Pérez, who attests to the multiple challenges citizens faced, among them, a lack of plastic to print out the cards.

According to La Clara’s representative, people didn’t know what to do in that situation. “They were told ‘Come back another day,’ but people don’t have the time. Plus, they have less trust in them actually fulfilling the process.”

Through social media platforms, “we started telling people ‘hey, you can still register without getting a card. If you don’t have the card, you can vote with any other type of identification. But you have to make sure they give you a voter number, that is independent from receiving or not receiving the card,’” said Meléndez Pérez.

Even then, Silva Díaz stated that “we saw many young people mobilize toward the end of the process. Many people said: ‘Oh, they just waited till the last minute.’ Well, yeah, but compared to previous years, the number of young people who registered to vote was colossal. This, in part, was due to the CEE’s lack of educational workshops, which don’t only mean educating people, but also going to schools and colleges to register people.”

The Mission: Ensure Voters Cast Informed Ballots

A few days before registration closed, MPA created the educational campaign #EsMiTurno (#ItsMyTurn), directed at young people with the objective of promoting an informed vote regarding issues that affect this sector.

“We are always looking for ways to involve young people in what’s going on in the country. That is why the youth are the protagonists of our new campaign. If you see the videos we publish, you’ll see young people discussing the topics that matter to them as a response to a survey we did at the end of last year over relevant topics for this generation,” said the organization’s leader.

Among the most relevant topics that fall below public domain are: environmental protection, gender violence, job market entry, and college. Due to this, MPA’s campaign included a forum where candidates for Governor, Resident Commissioner (State Representative for the Island), the Mayor of San Juan, and legislature could express their positions on these topics.

“We think this will be an atypical election due to the sheer number of new young voters. We think this is due to apathy. Usually, apathy toward the political creates resistance before voting, however in this case, we’re seeing quite the opposite. Apathy is becoming the fuel to participate and to not only vote but make an informed vote,’ said Silva Díaz.

Non Partisan Coordination

Aside from La Clara and MPA, other organizations that took part in this committee of electoral information include: Proyecto 85 (Project 85), Tu voto no se deja (Your Vote Matters) by the American Union for Civil Liberties and Global Shaper, ¿Quién me representa? (Who represents me?) of Espacios Abiertos, Voto con Conciencia (Vote With a Conscience) from the Puerto Rican Psychological Association, tPolítica Accessible (Accessible Politics), La Ruta de las Mujeres (The Women’s Route) of Proyecto Matria, Equidad 2020 (Equity 2020), Practica tu voto del Grupo PTV (Cast Your Vote by the PTV group.

The platform tuvotopuertorico.com offers direct access to these organization’s efforts, initiatives, and non-party projects so people can interact with voting resources that will help them: know the candidates, evaluate their positions and proposals, learn about the ballot’s functions, practice voting on sample ballots, know about equal representation in our government, and immerse themselves in different campaigns.

The initiative to create this information bank is due to the fact that “we realized that the statistics for participation during the past four years was quite low and we wanted to educate people so they felt empowered to vote with the certainty that they wouldn’t lose their vote, that they would be fully educated on the process, and that they could vote confidently,” expressed Layshi Curbelo, UX designer and collaborator for the paravotar.org project.

Curbelo has worked alongside web developers Emmanuel Luciano and José Padilla to create the website in a voluntary and pro bono manner. The tool to practice your vote (paravotar.org/practica) has reached 20,000 users and 5,000 people have downloaded the PDF version.

Their main motivator is that “people will begin to educate themselves about the other ways to vote aside from straight-party voting. We know ballots are designed for straight-party voting because it’s the easiest way, but we want to explain that there are other ways to cast your ballot that are available and easy to do. You simply have to practice them,” she emphasized.

Educating people about voting alternatives fills the void left by the CEE campaign. Moreover, it widens the representation of the main political parties. “Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party continue promoting straight-party voting. They talk about what defines them as a party and I don’t think they’ve done much to try and educate people about other modes of voting,” stated La Clara’s spokesperson.

With a similar objective in mind, MPA carried out a survey with the candidates for Governor, Resident Commissioner, San Juan Mayor, and state-wide legislators for both the Puerto Rican House of Representatives and the State Senate.

“It’s the second time we’ve done this because we know that there is much debate between the candidates for governor and it’s important to evaluate them, however, they’re not the only candidates we are voting for. The legislature is just as important as the executive branch,” stated Silva Díaz.

Although these efforts have helped to motivate and educate voters, nothing compares to a government budget. However, the impact of these organizations, initiatives, and projects have multiplied and all report high levels of questions regarding the voting process.

“The most technical way to see this is through an impact tool on Instagram or Facebook and Twitter metrics. Beyond that, also noting the public’s response regarding us as a reliable source of useful information. People go beyond just “liking” or “sharing” posts, they comment, ask questions, and recommend us to others,” highlighted Pérez Meléndez, La Clara’s representative.

This article was made possible thanks to the support of Solutions Journalism Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rigorous and captivating coverage of responses to social issues.

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