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(Arizona News Connection) Election Day is finally here, and this year more than 17 million Latinos are expected to cast a ballot.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund finds swing states - like Arizona - which have a significant Latino population, will be influential and decisive.

The group's National Director of Civic Engagement Juan Rosa said it is important these voters understand the power they hold.

"The two messages are, one, a message of pride in the growth of the Latino electorate in this country," said Rosa, "and second is the message of empowerment, understanding that we as voters have rights in this country and that our listeners have resources."

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Nearly one of every four Arizona voters is expected to be Latino, an almost 20 percent increase from 2016.

Rosa said while tomorrow will be about participating in the democratic process, issues are likely to come up.

He said his organization is ready to provide voters with accurate, nonpartisan information about electoral participation.

You can reach the toll-free bilingual hotline at 1-888-839-8682 from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Looking past Election Day, Rosa said it is important to understand that final election results could take some time to be called.

He said individual states can take days and sometimes even weeks to count every ballot and ensure they're responding to certain appeals and administrative issues.

Nonetheless Rosa said he wants to reassure voters that the system does work, even if it does take some extra time.

"If you see that you go to bed on election night not knowing, it is not a bug in the system," said Rosa. "That is actually really the way the system works, it is supposed to take a few days for each state, each of our 50 states, to go back and count every vote."

Rosa said every audit and examination of past elections shows there is minimal fraud. Rosa stresses mis-, dis- and malinformation will be a threat this election cycle.

Nearly 70 false election narratives have been made as of early September, according to Newsguard.

Rosa said harmful misinformation will be on the rise after Election Day and recommends to not share suspicious content and consult various reliable sources if you are in doubt.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.