University of Southern California | Annenberg School for Communication

DENVER - Three faces stare out at the half-dozen immigrants studying for the U.S. citizenship exam, but only one is smiling. The first two figures on the whiteboard - labeled G.W.B and Cheney - have been X-ed out, leaving a beaming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) next in line for the White House.

Maria De Cambra, program director for the Latina Initiative, swears the drawing contains no political message. Her group is a nonpartisan nonprofit, after all, and their aim is to boost civic engagement of Latinas, not back particular candidates or parties. The drawing is just a lesson on the presidential line of succession, she says, but the smile on stick-figure Pelosi's face seems like more than just an artistic flourish.

Barack Obama and John McCain are both making overtures to Latino voters who are expected to be kingmakers in hotly contested Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. In recent weeks, both presumptive presidential nominees addressed the national conferences of three prominent national Latino organizations, and Obama recently released his first Spanish radio ad in Colorado. But left-leaning nonprofits have been perfecting their ground game long before the candidates began rolling into town.

Though census estimates show Latinos make up 15.5 percent of the U.S. population, they only account for 8.9 percent of eligible voters because Latinos are younger and less likely to be citizens than other groups. Short of lowering the voting age, nothing can be done about Latinos' relative youth, but citizenship is another story.

Following the 2006 immigrants' rights marches, a nationwide coalition of community organizations, unions, and Spanish-language media companies began pushing for eligible non-citizens to apply for naturalization. In 2007, nearly 1.4 million people applied for citizenship in the United States, double the number that applied in 2006, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services figures. In Colorado, home to an estimated 80,000 people eligible for citizenship, 14,376 applied in 2007 compared with 8,122 in 2006.

Turning eligible immigrants into citizens and new citizens into voters takes a lot of time and effort, so politicians who look only as far ahead as the next election are unlikely to invest in the process.

"The parties and the national political infrastructure won't invest in naturalization because it's too distant from voting," said Louis DeSipio, chair of the Chicano/Latino Studies department at the University of California, Irvine. "The nonprofits are critical in naturalization."

If groups continue to make naturalization a priority, new citizens will be a major factor in expanding the Latino voter population which in turn will likely lead to toss up states becoming more Democratic-leaning and turning states like Texas and Florida into toss ups, said DeSipio.

Courting new citizens, excited to vote for the first time, is doubly effective as they are likely to go back to their communities and spark political conversations.

"We always say [voting] is the best part of being a citizen," said Grace Lopez Ramirez, directer of the Colorado chapter of Mi Familia Vota, as she registered voters outside a naturalization ceremony in Denver last month. "When someone's enthusiastic about voting and they can't wait to do it, it's the best kind of advertising."

Nonprofits cannot endorse candidates, but since Latinos disproportionately favor Democrats, expanding Latino voting rolls is expected to overwhelmingly favor Obama. Nationally, the Illinois senator holds a commanding 3-to-1 lead among Latinos, with 66 percent saying they would vote for or lean toward Obama versus 23 percent for McCain, according to the latest Pew Hispanic Center poll.

"It's not a function of groups going out and saying, 'Let's support Obama,' it's simply a function of who the demographics are they're working with," said Anna Sampaio, a political science professor at the University of Colorado, Denver, and board member of the Latina Initative. The low propensity voters targeted by groups like the Latina Initiative typically live in lower income, lower education, working class immigrant communities, she said.

Nonprofit groups can campaign around issues or ballot measures, and their positions often line up with Democratic orthodoxy. Most Colorado Latino groups are coming out swinging against Amendment 46 which would end affirmative action in public institutions and Amendment 47, the "right to work" ballot measure viewed as anti-union that Ramirez calls "the right to work for less measure."

But Colorado Republicans think they have a unique opportunity with McCain when it comes to Latino voters since he's a popular senator from a neighboring state who has a history of backing comprehensive immigration reform.

"Just because Latinos are being registered by quote-unquote unpartisan groups that lean to left, doesn't mean that they're going to vote that way," said Lionel Rivera, Republican mayor of conservative Colorado Springs.

Republican Latinos working with nonpartisan groups know expanding voter registration plays a critical role in making candidates listen to the Latino community, even if it disproportionately benefits Democrats.

"I don't care how loyal candidates are to their party, I want to know how loyal they are to our people," said Jorge Amayo, co-director of El Voto Latino, a nonpartisan project of the Greeley LULAC council.

Amayo, a Republican, said El Voto Latino is holding back its registration efforts in part because Obama volunteers are hitting the Greeley area hard. El Voto Latino is focusing its efforts on upcoming candidate forums between 4th Congressional District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and her Democratic challenger Betsy Markey and other local candidates. Talks are ongoing with senatorial candidates Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer, as well as surrogates for Barack Obama and John McCain about debates closer to the election.

"It's important to get them in front of us before they are elected," said Amayo. "We put a Latino twist on every issue."

An estimated 157,000 Latinos who were eligible to vote in 2004 sat out the election and George W. Bush carried the state. Democrats, like party superdelegate and Edwards resident Debbie Marquez, are hopeful 2008 will be different.

"There is no way that Latinos in this state are going to sit out this election. It's too important," Marquez said.