Mi Familia en Acción, a national Latino civic engagement organization, announced last week the rollout of Nubi, a bilingual AI-powered application that answers questions about voting, voter registration, citizenship-related issues and Know Your Rights information in English and Spanish.
Why it matters
The app arrives as Latino voters become a larger and more fluid segment of the electorate. Nearly 39 million Hispanics are eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections. According to the Pew Research Center, Hispanics have added 5.25 million eligible voters since 2022 — more than any other racial or ethnic group. A new NBC News/Telemundo poll also finds that roughly one in seven Latino voters who supported Donald Trump in 2024 now say they want Democrats to control Congress.
How Nubi works
- Nubi accepts questions in English or Spanish and can provide locally specific information across all 50 states, including where and when to vote, early voting options, mail ballots and voter registration details.
- Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, Nubi does not search the open internet for answers. Héctor Sánchez Barba, president and CEO of Mi Familia en Acción, said the organization feeds Nubi information from sources it considers reliable, with human review and operational guardrails.
- If Nubi lacks a reliable answer, it is designed to acknowledge that and direct users to a trusted source or partner instead of inventing responses.
A user can ask whether they are registered, whether they can vote by mail, where their polling place is, or what early-voting options are available. Nubi guides users through a series of basic questions before delivering a locally tailored response.
Development and funding
Nubi is the product of roughly five years of work to combine Mi Familia en Acción’s traditional organizing with technology. The organization launched a simpler chatbot about two years ago and then developed the current AI version. Sánchez said the organization financed development itself but declined to disclose the cost, calling it a "very big investment."
The group says it will continue updating Nubi as voting laws, court decisions and government policies change. Over time, the app’s scope could expand to address questions about immigration enforcement or problems voters encounter at polling places.
What the organization says
"People don't need to be a constitutional lawyer to find information about how they need to vote," Héctor Sánchez Barba said, adding that the goal is to put reliable information in one place. He emphasized that Nubi is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates or causes.
Sánchez also said the technology will not replace door-knocking and other traditional organizing, but could extend civic information into rural or otherwise overlooked communities organizers rarely reach.
Broader context
Nubi launches as Latino voters play an increasingly significant and less predictable role in U.S. elections. Pew projects Hispanics will make up 16% of eligible voters in 2026, up from a 9% share in 2006. Latino voters are fragmenting into competing political identities rather than shifting uniformly toward one party; in May, 52% of registered Latino voters surveyed in 17 competitive House districts said they were undecided or could change their minds.
The app aims to simplify the complex patchwork of election websites and rules into a conversational experience that provides reliable, localized answers for voters.
