2022 General Election Forum . Graphic design by Alex Esquivel

On September 21, BenitoLink received a $9,108 grant from the Community Foundation for San Benito County (CFFSBC). Thanks to the funds from this grant, BenitoLink has been able to improve our Your Voice – Your Vote Election Forums with the goal of reaching more county residents. 

English and Spanish language flyers were printed to announce the forum. Calls and emails sent out to the community asking for questions were also Bi-lingual. All  election forum videos have now been made available on the BenitoLink Video YouTube page for viewing.  Also, for the first time, we have been able to offer a full-length video with Spanish subtitles*. This outreach is part of BenitoLink’s mission to listen to, serve and invite all community members to take part in civic engagement.

According to the US census, about 65% of the 64,000 residents in San Benito are Hispanic/Latino/a. With the funds from this grant, we were able to better serve Spanish language readers and offer them more in-depth election information. 

We know many of you have busy lives and we want to make election learning easy for all of you. Videos produced by Eugenia Renteria of Inspira Studios allow BenitoLink readers to watch on their own schedule. We were also fortunate to have the financial support for both the Primary and General Election forums from the following community sponsors: Brent Redmond Transportation, Golden Memorial, Phil Foster: Pinnacle Organics, Richard W. Shelton Insurance, Rotary Club of San Juan Bautista, SBC Cosmetic Care, True Value Hardware, Wright Brothers Industrial Supply, and the Community Foundation for San Benito County. These local businesses and organizations play a critical role in helping us cover the cost of the forum and videos. 

Forums with as many as 250 in attendance are a lot of work but they are a chance for you to see candidates discuss important local issues in person. We want to thank BenitoLink team members, board, committee and volunteers for helping with our election coverage this year. 

Hollister resident and BenitoLink volunteer, Clemente Hernandez has helped our newsroom translate surveys and share election results in Spanish. “My personal motivation is to inform Spanish-speaking residents about any issues in our community. My main job is to make sure that all communications are translated into Spanish so that our community is well-informed when voting.” Early in the process, Hernandez helped translate flyers in Spanish which were delivered to local markets and shops throughout the county.  “Reading the information in Spanish helps them be confident voters,” Hernandez said. BenitoLink is fortunate to have passionate supporters like Clemente who chose to help our community in this way. 

BenitoLink staff members Noe Magaña, Alex Esquivel and Laura Romero and intern Juliana Luna also helped with translation for the Spanish language community. The General Election is the first time we have been able to experiment with and produce a full-length video in subtitles for our residents.

We urge our community to stay informed and use our “Translate” feature located on the top of the computer screen. For mobile users, the translate button can be found towards the end of the article before our sponsored advertisements. 

We appreciate our generous sponsors and this wonderful Community Foundation grant, which allowed us to keep our forums free to the public and help residents become more involved in their local government. Supporting your local nonprofit newsroom will ensure more quality election coverage.

*En Español–  Nuestro video completo del foro está disponible con subtítulos en español. Al ver el video en YouTube, haga clic en el botón de configuración ubicado en la parte inferior derecha del video. Luego haz clic en subtítulos y selecciona Español.