This month, the Women’s March Action kicked off canvassing efforts in Boyle Heights. Photo by Brenda Verano
Today, Monday, October 20, is the last day to register to vote in the upcoming 2025 Statewide Special Election taking place in November.
And although California offers same-day voter registration, which allows you to register and vote in person on or before Election Day, voters are getting ready to decide on Proposition 50, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment concerning congressional redistricting.
In Latino communities of Los Angeles, the last stretch to inform voters about the proposition and ignite Latino voter mobilization is in full force.
In neighborhoods like Boyle Heights, which has a population of more than 83,000 people with about 65% of them Latino, the Yes on 50 campaign has been led by local voter rights organizations.
In an exclusive interview, Emiliana Guereca, executive director of Women’s March Action, also known as Marcha de Mujeres, talked to CALÓ News about their canvassing efforts, the misinformation surrounding Prop 50, reaching older Latino voters and language access, among other things.
Background
This month, the Women’s March Action, in partnership with Avance Democratic Club and Grassroots Democrats HQ, kicked off its local canvassing movement for YES on Prop 50 beginning in Boyle Heights.
For the past few weeks, sometimes multiple times a week, the groups took on canvassing, door-knocking and hosting open office hours, all to ensure Latino voters in their district have the information they need to vote for Prop 50.
As previously reported by CALÒ News, if passed, Prop 50 would add five new congressional seats for California, which advocates argue could be an effective game-changer for representation and democracy in the state with the largest Latino population in the U.S.
The Yes on 50 campaign, led by Governor Gavin Newsom, is being framed as a way to level out the playing field in Congress.
The Women’s March Action offices in Boyle Heights. Photo by Brenda Verano
It is a direct response to state leaders in Texas, who redrew Congressional district lines to gain five more Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, after pressure from President Donald Trump to ensure his partys keep their majority in Congress come the 2026 mid-term elections.
Proposition 50 proposes new lines for many of California’s 52 congressional districts, negating the five Republican seats drawn by Texas. Under the proposed lines, Democrats could gain up to five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
More than just the redistricting efforts and gaining more seats in Congress, supporters of Prop 50 believe it’s a necessary move to fight against the current administration and safeguard public education, healthcare, immigration and the quality of life of Latinos.
“Prop 50 gives us representation at the federal level to make sure that there are checks and balances on the President of the U.S.,” Guereca said.
Local movement
As director, she also said she felt like the Women’s March Action had a civic and personal responsibility to help move the needle when it came to the proposition, especially as their offices are located in the heart of the Boyle Heights community, just steps away from Mariachi Plaza, a Latino landmark in L.A.
“Specifically for us with offices in Boyle Heights, we [wanted] to make sure that we get the vote out in Latino communities, especially when it is a non-election year. This is a special election, which means we’ve got to double down on getting the vote out,” she said. “The issue really affects the Latino communities because we historically have low voter turnout in non-election years and even in election years.
The March Action, a nonprofit, self-proclaimed feminist organization, focuses on building the political power of women to increase their representation in government at all levels and provides intersectional education and entry points for grassroots organizers to engage in local, state and federal elections. “We work towards an equal future, which means making sure that we get out the vote for any issue that is a woman’s issue and all issues are women’s issues,” Guereca said.
Information Gap and Disinformation
Julián Castro, chief executive office of the Latino Community Foundation and former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, attended Spectrum News’s “Inside the Issues” show, where he discussed Proposition 50 and its impact on the Latino community. One of the most challenging aspects when it comes to special elections, he said, was the misleading information or the lack of information that Latino voters received prior to casting their vote.
“You still have a lot of people that need more information,” Castro said on the show.
He also referred to the many Californians who remain undecided on whether to support or oppose the proposition. “A lot of that undecided vote would be because people just haven’t been reached yet,” he said.
Making sure that people know about the special election and about Prop 50 has been the top priority for the Women’s March Action, the Avance Democratic Club and the Grassroots Democrats HQ. From hosting phone banks and canvassing to on-the-ground voter outreach, Guereca said behind these efforts is the idea that every vote counts.
Y”es, on Prop 50″ signs in businesses in Boyle Heights. Photo by Brenda Verano
Guereca also said many older Latinos have come into the organization’s offices, arguing that through their trusted television channels, they had seen ads to vote no on Prop 50.
“Last weekend, we had somebody come in… what they learned through Spanish media was to vote no on Prop 50,” she said. She explained that after asking the elders what they had learned or what incentivized them to continue watching the commercial, they said it was a TV actor they were familiar with who was featured in the commercial.
She said that, although for many Latinos, connecting the issue with a familiar face is beneficial, bringing the issue back to the facts and letting people know that this might affect their healthcare, education, prescriptions and housing is what truly matters.
As part of a campaign that spent millions of dollars to reach Latino voters, commercials opposing California’s Proposition 50 have begun airing on Univision and Telemundo, the two most-watched channels in Latino households.
Many of these commercials, funded by the campaign committee “Protect Voters First,” argue that the proposition is a partisan power grab by California politicians and that the special election is costing millions of dollars for taxpayers.
Guereca said many of these commercials are strategic and a part of a campaign that spent millions of dollars to reach Latino voters in their own language.
Despite this, the Yes on Prop 50 coalition is endorsed by the California Democratic Party and backed by leaders like former President Barack Obama, Senator Alex Padilla, Senator Adam Schiff and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. More recently, new ads in Spanish and English featuring New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in support of the proposition also aired on broadcast television.
“If he gets away with it, all bets are off—for our health care, our paychecks and our freedoms,” she says in the video. “With Prop 50, we can stop him.”
Castro said voices like Ocasio-Cortez and Obama are key political figures that many Latinos are familiar with. “These are trusted voices to deliver this message and when you are doing that in Spanish, like representative Ocasio-Cortez, that is probably more effective,” he said.
Community mobilizers
More locally in Boyle Heights, the real mobilizers are small, family-owned and local businesses, many of whom have built trust with their customers over the years. Part of the Women’s March Action work in the community was to include and mobilize the businesses. Today, many local restaurants, stores, offices and even bars in the community have a Yes on Prop 50 poster on their doors or windows.
“Small businesses are community mobilizers,” Guereca said. “They are leaders in the community; they may not have the title of congressman or city council, but our community members are the most important to get the vote out, so we make sure we talk to them about what it means and we ask them to put a sign at their window.”
The standard deadline to register to vote in California for the November 4, 2025, election is Monday, October 20, 2025. You can register online or by mail by this date.
If you miss this deadline, you can still register and vote in person through “Same Day Voter Registration,” also known as Conditional Voter Registration.
To register to vote, visit RegisterToVote.ca.gov.
