Pitbull Helps Mobilize Latino Voters

Pitbull is lending his voice – literally – to a good cause.

The Cuban rapper is just one of 35 artists who is donating their music to the non-partisan organization Voto Latino in an effort to help encourage Latinos to vote in the election, the organization announced today.

Voto Latino has teamed up with iTunes to offer more than 30 free music downloads to those who sign up to receive information on voter registration and other key issues throughout 2012.

Pitbull, in particular, has donated his song “Something for the DJ’s” and other musicians donating music include Kat Deluna, Los Lobos, Los Tigres and Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Rosario Dawson, who co-founded Voto Latino in 2004, explained the reasoning behind using music to mobilize voters. “Our interest is to keep bringing people into the political mix," she said in a statement. "Everyone should have an understanding of the system whether or not they're eligible to vote and we believe that offering free music through social media platforms will help continue to motivate and engage those that may not already be a part of the conversation."

Voto Latino CEO/President Maria Teresa Kumar echoed those sentiments. "Music is an incredible motivator to learn more about the political process."

The non-partisan organization used a similar tactic in 2010 when they used free downloads to encourage tens of thousands of young people to complete census surveys. But now their mission, according to Kumar, is a different one.

"We now want to translate that pledge to the polls," Kumar said. "The iTunes compilation sparks the interest. Voto Latino shows how easy it is to register, vote and carve out our community's future together."

According to Yahoo.com, Voto Latino has already helped register more than 120,000 people to vote.