A Voice for the Silent Majority

In 2014, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) sued the City of Merced for a violation of the California Voter Rights Act. Over half of Merced’s population and a third of its voters are Latino, but there hadn't been a Latino representative on City Council in nearly a decade.

As a result of the lawsuit, 2016 was the first year the citizens of Merced would have voting districts. This fundamental shift in the local electorate provided the perfect opportunity to test if we could engage a constituency that had been historically marginalized and underrepresented by activating them with the perfect content on their phones and at their doorsteps?