Colombian singer Juanes called on Latinos living in the United States to vote in the upcoming presidential elections on November 6th.
The internationally-renowned artist considered the exercising of the franchise to be one of the most crucial issues facing the latino community today.
“What is most important is that we are not indifferent to voting. Everyone that can vote should do so,” the Colombian recording artist stated in an interview prior to the Premios Juventud, a production of Univision.
This is not Juanes’ ?rst step into the political arena: he was the organizer of the “Peace Without Borders” bene?t concert ?rst held on the Simon Bolivar Bridge between Colombia and Venezuela in 2008 and Havana, Cuba in 2009.
An estimated 24 million Hispanics are eligible to vote in the November 6 elections, though the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Of?cials (NALEO) says that only 12.2 million will actually vote.
The Latino vote has been deemed by some analysts as crucial to the November elections, with the NALEO Educational Fund projecting it to account for 8.7 percent of the country’s voters.
The Hispanic vote is crucial in several states, including New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. It is believed that Democratic candidate Barack Obama holds the advantage with the demographic over his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.