The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Comedian George Lopez is joining the effort to get out the Latino vote for Barack Obama.

Lopez, star of ABC’s “The George Lopez Show,” addressed a rally Saturday in Las Vegas intended to get Hispanic supporters to canvass their neighborhoods and register new voters.

“The country is fascinated with black and white, but what about brown?” Lopez asked. “It’s underestimated, undervalued and it has the power to decide the election … Our vote counts the same as their vote.”

Lopez’s appearance came the same week the Obama campaign announced it and the Democratic National Committee are setting aside $20 million to target and mobilize Hispanic voters in the presidential election this fall.

The campaign said the effort will be emphasized in swing states such as Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida because of their Hispanic electorate and the closeness of their previous elections.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain also is targeting the Hispanic vote in Nevada.

It took a personal call from Obama, set up by fellow comedian Chris Rock, to get Lopez on board with the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign a few months ago, Lopez said.

“My message is that I personally am for Barack Obama, and if you are that’s great. But more importantly, it should be a fair election and people should vote,” Lopez told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Too many states are decided not by the people that turn out, but by the people that don’t turn out. The fact that more people vote for ‘American Idol’ than for president of the United States is just incredibly wrong,” he added.

Carlos Chavez, 22, a roofer and Obama supporter from Las Vegas, said he thinks Hispanics may listen to Lopez.

“Every Latino watches his show,” Chavez said. “Everybody knows who he is.”

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