Univision and ‘Ya es Hora’ Voter Registration and Mobilization.

Univision Communications Inc. and the “Ya es Hora” (It’s Time) national partners, announced the expansion of this award-winning civic engagement campaign through new local efforts in partnership with mayors in the top Hispanic cities to register and mobilize voters. Mayors partnering in this effort include New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Houston Mayor Bill White.

As part of the partnership, the mayors will participate in public service announcements (PSAs) to run on Univision, Univision Radio and Univision.com (Keyword: Ya es Hora), which will support local grassroots activities taking place in their communities. In addition, Univision will also launch new PSAs focused on informing its audiences about absentee voting.

“The fact that today we are able to engage the mayors of cities with large Hispanic populations in this effort means that we will be able to further enhance our reach and mobilize our community,” said Cesar Conde, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Univision Communications Inc. “Hispanics will be instrumental in electing the next president of the United States and we are committed to doing our part to empower this important constituency.”

”Our ability to ensure our constituents are informed and able to participate in local, state and national elections is critical,” said Mayor Diaz. ”One of our priorities at the U.S. Conference of Mayors is promoting civic engagement which makes the partnership between the mayors of these Hispanic cities, Univision and the ‘Ya es Hora’ partnership crucial to our efforts.”

“We have seen unprecedented engagement by Hispanics in the primaries because of the ‘Ya es Hora’ campaign,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the NALEO Educational Fund, a national “Ya es Hora” partner. “This speaks to the power of ongoing outreach and information efforts. Most importantly, it once again highlights the commitment of Hispanics across the country to become active, and have a voice, in their communities.”

“In the last few months we have had thousands of Hispanics become naturalized citizens in the Los Angeles area because of the ‘Ya Es Hora’ campaign,” said Mayor Villaraigosa. “By helping these new citizens, as well as any other eligible voters to register to vote, we will increase participation at the polls and enhance civic participation, which is vital in a thriving democracy.”
“Latinos comprise a powerful and growing segment of voters in America,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. “In this day and age, candidates for the most powerful offices in the country know that to win, they must appeal to Latinos. Thanks to the great work of Univision and NALEO on the ‘Ya es Hora’ campaign, I expect Latinos to flood the polls this November and play a major role in deciding who becomes the next President of the United States.”

The Peabody award-winning “Ya es Hora” initiative is a national civic engagement campaign developed to inform, educate and motivate Hispanics to participate in the American political dialogue by leveraging the power of a coalition of the nation’s largest and most established Hispanic organizations and the country’s largest Spanish-language media companies. Since January 2007, the campaign has mobilized close to 1.4 million eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship, secured more than 400 local community based organizations as partners, generated more than 40,000 calls to the 888-Ve-Y-Vota toll free number, driven more than 94,000 unique visits to www.yaeshora.info, distributed more than 110,000 brochures and conducted more than 200 citizenship workshops. Univision, the NALEO Educational Fund, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Council of La Raza, ImpreMedia, Entravision Communications, Mi Familia Vota Educational Fund and more than 400 organizations are partners in this effort.