Carlos Ivan Robles will vote for the first time next month because his life depends on it.
Robles, a 51-year-old Puerto Rican who’s lived in eastern Pennsylvania for almost three decades, suffered a stroke in 2014 and relies on Obamacare to cover medical bills and prescription charges that he cannot afford.
“I’ve never registered to vote before, it never interested me but we have to get rid of Trump. Without Obamacare I couldn’t pay for my medications,” said Robles, a former auto body painter.
Robles isn’t alone in fretting about healthcare. According to the Pew Research Centre, healthcare is a top election issue for three quarters of Latino voters – the country’s fastest growing racial and voting demographic.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to dismantle former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which expanded assistance to low income Americans like Robles through Medicaid and protects about 129 million working age people with serious pre-existing chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and asthma from being denied health insurance. Trump’s threat could soon become a grim reality if the Republicans succeed in appointing ultra-conservative Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court.
“I hope Trump doesn’t put that judge on the court, but I can’t change that. Voting is all I can do, and that gives me hope,” added Robles, while registering to vote online outside a health centre in York city. “Maybe I’ll talk to my sister and brother-in-law, they’ve never voted before either.”
In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania – the first Republican to take the so-called blue wall state since George W Bush – by 44,292 votes out of more than 6m cast. Then, 57% of eligible Latino voters turned out and 22% voted for Trump – less than the national average but enough to help him scrape over the line to take 20 precious electoral college votes.
While polls continue to show Biden leading nationally, analysts agree that Pennsylvania is a must-win battleground state if the Democrats are to reclaim the White House, and the state’s rapidly growing and diverse Latino communities could play a crucial role – if they vote.
“The path to victory is through our communities of colour and the Latino vote is an untouched mass of power that has to be unblocked to win the state, but they’re mostly ignored. Even Biden’s campaign still isn’t taking the Latino vote seriously, there’s been little outreach,” said Maegan Llerena, state director of nonprofit social justice group Make the Road Action.
While Latinos do lean Democrat overall, they do not vote as a bloc and the size and diversity of this electorate means they could be key to victory for both candidates in several important swing states from Florida to Pennsylvania.
Yet one poll found that by mid-September, almost 60% of registered Latino voters nationwide had still not been contacted by any candidate or political party – even though a record 32 million are eligible to vote, making them the largest non-white electorate.
According to the 2017 Census American Community Survey, only 52% of the 875,000 Latinos living in Pennsylvania are eligible to vote. The relatively low proportion is down to large numbers of under 18s and non-citizen adults among Latinos nationwide.
At the start of this year, 274,000 eligible voters – 60% of the total – were unregistered, according to analysis by CASA, a grassroots advocacy and political action group working with Latin and immigrant communities.
With so much at stake, a coalition of progressive grassroots groups including Casa and Make the Road are carrying out voter registration drives across the state’s 67 counties in order to improve political participation in communities of colour.
York, a former industrial hub situated 26 miles south of the state capital Harrisburg, is a diverse and growing city where just over two thirds of its 45,000 habitants identify as black, Latin or mixed race. According to the census, one in three residents live in poverty, and 13% have a college degree.
In the city centre, exactly a month before election day on 3 November, masked bilingual outreach workers armed with tablets set-up outside a busy medical clinic and supermarket popular with black and Latino residents, inviting passersby to register to vote.
It’s a mixed bunch. Reina Rivera, 31, a factory worker originally from Jersey City, wants to vote out Trump as she fears welfare assistance like food stamps and section 8 housing will be cut if he wins a second term. It will be her first time voting too. “I’m embarrassed, I should have voted when I was younger, but this time I will, I’m sick of Trump.”
Lanitte Rosado, 42, also plans to vote but is undecided for whom since hearing rumours that Biden plans to cut welfare programmes – which is untrue. Local news in Spanish is limited to part time radio stations and people rely heavily on social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp for information.
In total, the team registered 45 people over six hours – a mix of first timers, new citizens and people who’d moved house since the last election. Lots of people were too busy, uninterested, or unable to vote due to their immigration status.
“It was a good day, but it’s worrying how little time we have left and we can’t do the outreach we want. The hardest thing is convincing people that their vote matters, and that it will be counted,” said Mirna Gonzalez, Casa’s field coordinator.
In person voter registration drives only began in September due to the coronavirus risk, but door knocking and crowds are still banned and it’s been a struggle to recruit enough outreach workers.
Before the pandemic Casa, which is conducting drives in eight counties, was hoping to register at least 7,000 voters. So far, they’ve managed about 1,100 and the target has been downsized to 1,900.
But every vote counts so there’s no time to get disheartened, according to outreach worker Elena Aguilar, 49, a real estate agent originally from El Salvador with temporary protected status (TPS) – an immigration programme which Trump is trying to end.
“I do this work so people who can vote, vote for me and all of us in this situation. But people are scared about their votes not being counted. Trump is out of control, he’s a dictator … He should be ashamed … I’ve paid taxes for 24 years.”
And the pandemic won’t stop people like Astrid Russolillo, 42, originally from Puerto Rico, who will be voting in person because she doesn’t trust the post office – despite underlying health conditions which increase her susceptibility to Covid-19.
“The abuse and discrimination has to end, we’re all human beings, we should be treated equally with respect, that’s why so many Latinos will vote this year. Our biggest fear isn’t the virus, it’s that Trump wins, that will kill us.”
In a state where Bernie Sanders enjoyed widespread support among Latinos, ousting Trump seems to be the principal motivation for those planning to vote Democrat next month, rather than excitement about Joe Biden.
That’s especially true in Kennett Square, a picturesque rural borough in Chester county situated 65 miles east of York, where immigration reform is a major factor influencing voting.
In Kennett Square, which is widely known as the mushroom capital of America, about 45% of the estimated 6,200 residents are Latinos. The community includes a growing number of citizens eligible to vote, as well as temporary residents and undocumented migrants unable to vote. Food trucks selling tacos, tortas and quesadillas are dotted around the mushroom farms as most immigrants originate from Mexico, but newer communities from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and Colombia are growing.
Keyri Zurita, 19, an American citizen who identifies as a Mexican with rights, is eager to cast her first ever ballot. “I’ve always wanted to vote, it’s a big deal for me. I want to fight for immigrants’ rights so people like my mum can stop being scared all the time, she works hard and pays her taxes but has no rights.”
For the past 20 years, Zurita’s mother, aged 48, has worked long shifts in a mushroom farm, normally 3am to 5pm, and spends the rest of her time at home in fear of being detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) and separated from her children.
Zurita, a college student, added: “We need to get rid of Ice, that’s why I wanted Bernie Sanders for president, but I’ll be voting for Biden to get Trump out.”
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