The day of the dead votes

After waiting all year for the big day, the decision will be reached, and the choice is yours, so choose wisely: tamales or molé? \nThat's right. The Day of the Dead is today. It's the Mexican holiday that commemorates the dead and celebrates life. What did you think I was talking about? \nOh yeah, the other thing that's today -- Election Day. I guess that's pretty important, too. I know who I'm voting for, but I'm not telling. All I'll say is he's older than 45 and too rich for his own good. \nBut either candidate would love my vote. Not just because I'm such a cool person, but because I'm part of a huge demographic each wants to conquer.\nLatinos are a hugely important voting group this year with about seven million are registered. That's one million more than the 2000 election. They could determine the way swing states, like Nevada, which is 22 percent Hispanic, vote. The candidates know this and campaigned like crazy to get Hispanic voters on their side. \nSpanish language ads were abundant in certain swing states like New Mexico, Florida and Colorado. George Bush and John Kerry spoke Spanish in speeches to grab Latinos' attention. And on Saturday, both candidates appeared on Sabado Gigante, the most popular Spanish-language show in the United States. The host, Don Francisco, interviewed them as a last ditch effort to gather votes. \nTheir efforts somewhat impressed me. They're realizing just how important Latinos are to this country. Or they're realizing just how important Latinos are to getting elected. \nBut it's all talk. \nOnce one of them gets elected, they'll probably neglect Latinos until 2008, when they will "care" again. In one campaign ad, Kerry promises to introduce a plan for immigration reform within his first 100 days in office. I couldn't help but laugh the first time I read that, but many Latinos believe him. Many more Latinos consider themselves Democrats and plan to vote for Kerry.\nThese candidates put more effort into reaching Latino voters than in any other campaign in history. But today it might not pay off as they hoped it would.\nVoter discrimination is a factor in every election. In the past, the main targets were blacks.\nPoll workers were known to throw out or tamper with ballots. But recently some are saying discrimination is more a case of voter intimidation. \nMany Latinos new to the United States can be easily intimidated by election workers, especially since they don't speak English that well.\nMy dad was voting once when one of the workers went in his booth and began suggesting names and showing him how to vote for them. How crazy can you get? \nSometimes poll workers will turn away Latinos, telling them they're not registered there hoping they will go home without voting, and because these potential voters don't know English that well, they don't argue. \nBut I hope today they will. \nCivil rights groups have called for election monitors, and the Justice Department has answered: It sent out 1,000 election monitors to nine states. They will oversee the voting process and report discrimination or tampering. \nI just want the election to be fair.\nOn second thought, I don't know why I just said that. After all, we've probably never had a fair election in our history.\nDiscrimination has been around as long as humans have, and dead people have cast their votes in many elections. Maybe that's why Election Day coincides with the Day of the Dead -- just something to think about.