Activists announce push to register Hispanic voters

LOS ANGELES - Activists announced a drive to register nearly 1 million Hispanic voters in time to cast ballots in the November presidential election.

''We're the soccer moms of 2000,'' Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, said Friday. He alluded to a group of voters targeted in the 1996 presidential election.

''This is the only electorate that is growing significantly,'' Gonzalez said. ''The vote that is spiraling upward and reaching critical mass is the Latinos.''

The effort, dubbed Latino Vote 2000, is part of a growing movement to tap the potential of nearly 13 million Hispanics in the United States who are eligible to vote.

Nearly half are unregistered.

There are 1.5 million unregistered potential voters in California alone, Gonzalez said.

The goal is to register 8 million Hispanics by the November election, he said.

The effort comes at a time when candidates from both parties are vigorously courting the Hispanic vote.

Gonzalez' figures show that 4.9 million Hispanics participated in the 1996 presidential election, and the group hopes that more than 6 million will cast their ballots in 2000.