Southwest Voter Registration Education Project

the southwest voter registration education project (svrep), founded in 1974, is the largest and oldest non-partisan latino voter participation organization in the united states. svrep is a 501(c)3, national nonprofit organization. it was founded by the late william c. velasquez and other mexican-american political activists to ensure the voting rights of mexican-americans in the southwest. the svrep mobilizes the latino vote and empowers the latino community to build a stronger and more open democratic society by engaging latinos in the electoral process. much progress has been made toward this goal. the number of latinos registered to vote in america has increased from 2.1 million in 1974 to 15.5 million in 2016. latino voter turnout has grown from 1.3 million to 13.5 million in the general elections held from 1994 to 2016. svrep has played a major role in the expansion of the latino vote in the us. since opening its doors in 1974, svrep has registered 2.7 million latinos to vote, t