Watch the tough-love PSA Univision is using to get Latinos to the polls

One big difference between Spanish and English news media in the US: Spanish-language media pushes the “get out the vote” message hard.

If you speak Spanish, you might appreciate this PSA from Univision co-anchor Maria Elena Salinas, encouraging viewers to vote in the midterm elections. The tagline is “No tenemos la autoridad moral para quejarnos, si no votamos; no podemos dejar que otros, decidan por nosotros.” Translated: “We have no moral authority to complain if we don’t vote; we can’t let others decide for us.”

On Election Day, Salinas and the rest of Univision are heavily promoting the voter protection hotline run by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). In English, the tweet below reads, “If you have questions or complaints about voting today, call NALEO at 1-888-839-8682, and don’t fail to exercise your right to vote. Make the difference.”

NALEO is predicting that 7.8 million Latinos will turn out to vote in 2014 — 1 million more than voted in the 2010 midterm elections. But there’s some uncertainty about whether Latinos are actually motivated to vote this year — or whether the sinking of immigration reform, followed by President Obama’s decision to delay executive action on immigration, have turned them off both parties for the time being. (That’s a frustration that Salinas acknowledged at the beginning of her PSA.)

For the most part, Latinos simply aren’t poised to make a difference in this year’s Senate races. The big exception might be Colorado. Polls showed incumbent Democrat Mark Udall running behind Republican Cory Gardner even with substantial Latino support, but if Udall pulls off a win, Latinos will likely be a big part of the reason why.