Young Latino Voters on the Rise

"That type of campaigning, they try to influence the Latino or African-American race. I think that's all for show. I personally think maybe they shouldn't use that. It's more the issues that affect us, the middle class, not images," she said.

Groups seeking to increase voter participation are hoping the unusually high level of interest in the 2008 campaign will spur young Latinos to vote. Their participation has held steady at 23 percent since 2000, said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center.

"One barrier they don't have to deal with is citizenship, but that doesn't turn them into voters," Fry said.

That's where Rendon, 19, and others are stepping in.

Rendon, who works two jobs and attends community college in Collin County outside Dallas, has gone looking for voters. Last year, he and other student members of the League of United Latin American Citizens took voter registration cards to Dallas public high schools, where Latinos are the majority. They registered about 2,000 high school seniors and continue to prod them to vote.

And even though Rendon acknowledges there are more ways than ever to reach young voters, he still has work to do urging them to the polls.

"I think there are some of us, once we get motivation, once we see that there might be a rally or a march for young Latinos, they say, 'Wow, this affects my people, we really should go out there and we should go do something about it,'" he said. "But then, unfortunately, at the same time, voting for young people isn't a fad, it's not hip, it's not cool."

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