Topeka ? By the middle of August, college student Lalo Munoz hopes to have registered 500 Latinos in Topeka and Lawrence to vote. As a first step, he asks them to add their names to the voter rolls.

In a recent survey of Hispanics who weren’t registered to vote, the most common response to why they did not participate in elections was, “Nobody asked me to.”

Munoz is doing just that, under a summer internship with the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago.

The institute sponsors conferences and teaches Hispanic youths how to organize. Munoz, of Kansas University, was one of 15 interns chosen by the institute to work in their own communities. Two other KU interns work in Hutchinson and Kansas City.

Hispanics comprise 10 percent of the population nationwide. In Shawnee County, 12,330 of the county’s 169,871 residents are Latino, according to the 2000 census.

“It’s definitely important to have that voice for the large population,” Munoz said.

Munoz said he wanted to help Latinos become more involved in the electoral process to build on the accomplishments they already have made. While fewer Hispanics voted in the last presidential election than whites or blacks, Latinos were the only group whose overall participation increased, he said.

A student of American studies at KU, Munoz was active with the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. Still, learning to conduct a voter registration drive has been a challenge.

Munoz does everything from canvassing neighborhoods to asking businesses and community organizations to let him provide information to customers and employees. He has enlisted the help of fellow HALO members from KU and Washburn University.