On Monday, early voting began in Orange and Osceola counties and several voting and Hispanic nonprofit organizations pushed for Hispanic participation in elections.

One in three Orange County residents identify as Hispanic and in Osceola County Hispanics make up more than half of the residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

“A lot of Latinos can’t vote because they don’t have their citizenships so, I’m voting for me, I’m voting for my island, but I’m also voting for all those Latinos that can’t,” Krizia Lopez Arce, the Chispa Florida Communications manager, said after she voted following the press conference at the Valencia College Lake Nona campus.

She said she always dreamt of helping play a part in shaping her community and country, which was something she didn’t believe was possible back in Puerto Rico.

“For me, it’s like a big opportunity,” she said.

She said it was an opportunity she didn’t want others to waste. It’s why she joined several other voting and Hispanic nonprofit organizations such as Hispanic Federation, Alianza Center, All Voting is Local, and several others to encourage Hispanic voters to take part in early voting.

According to the Election Supervisors of Osceola and Orange counties, during the 2020 presidential general election, only 65 percent of registered Hispanic voters in Osceola County voted. In Orange County, only 66 percent of the over 216,000 eligible Hispanic voters voted.

“If we don’t [vote] than, other people are going to make decisions for us,” she said

Data also showed off the over 74,000 Hispanic residents who voted in Osceola County, most of them voted before election day with over 30,000 voting early, and over 32,000 absentee votes. The same happened in Orange County, out of the 144,582 Hispanics who voted the majority also voted prior to election day with more than 59,000 voting-by-mail and 57,000 voting early.

Early voting will go on in Orange and Osceola counties for the next two weeks until August 21st. The 20 Orange County early voting sites and nine Osceola County early voting sites open from nine in the morning and close at seven in the evening.