ORLANDO, Fla. — The coronavirus pandemic has caused challenges for voting rights organizations like Poder LatinX to register people to vote, the group's Florida state director, Nancy Batisa, said.

She said her organization had an internal goal of registering 50,000 people.

“In March, we were just over 30,000 people that we registered to vote,” Batista said. “We would’ve done that goal in June.”

Then the pandemic hit, and the group had to shut down its field operations and switch its work to phone banks.

“We’re still doing our part,” Batista said. “We’re still calling people, asking them if they’ve registered to vote, and if they haven’t, then we’re sending them a link and we’re walking them through the process to register online.”

The organization now registers 60 people a month, she said.

Despite the slowdown in voter registrations, Batista said her organization will continue to try to reach its goal.

“Local officials are the ones that make the laws and legislation so those are the people we want to make sure represent us,” said Batista, who is a naturalized citizen.

The last day to register to vote for the general election in Florida is October 5. ​