Volunteers with Mi Familia Vota in Denver make calls urging Hispanics to vote in the 2006 election. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, but the Hispanic voter turnout rate falls below their percentage of the population. Organizations like the nonpartisan Mi Familia Vota, now called Democracia U.S.A., work to increase voter registration and turnout of Hispanics. |
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Washington -- U.S. Census records indicate
the 44-million-member Hispanic community is the fastest growing
minority group in the United States, accounting for as much
as half of the total population growth. However, because Hispanics
account for only 10 percent of new U.S. voters, their growing
numbers are not translating into political influence yet,
says researcher Richard Fry.
In an interview with USINFO, Fry,
a senior research associate at the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic
Center in Washington, outlined three major factors that
“siphon off [Hispanics' political] clout from their
population growth.” He also cited indicators that
the community will become a much greater political force
in the future.
Hispanic Americans sometimes have played
a crucial electoral role in states where they are more concentrated,
such as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
However, Hispanics accounted for only 6 percent of the voters
in 2004 even though they constituted 15 percent of the U.S.
population.
The Hispanic community is “a young
population," with many under age 18 and therefore ineligible
to vote, Fry said, pointing out that many are U.S.-born
children of Mexicans and Central Americans who came to the
United States in the 1980s and 1990s. This “very large
group, called the ‘Hispanic Second Generation,’”
had an average age of 11 in 2004, he said.
“They’re aging now. They’re
working their way through our elementary schools and high
schools and pretty soon they are going to turn age 18,"
he said. This factor partially explains why experts think
"the size of the Hispanic vote will increase,”
he said. However, Fry said, as with other ethnic groups,
Hispanic Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 have traditionally
lower rates of voting compared to their elders.
The U.S. cable television station Mun2,
which is aimed at young Hispanics, is teaming up with the
Telemundo television network in the "Vota Por Tu Futuro
/ Vote 4 UR Future" campaign to encourage youth voter
mobilization in 2008. Although the Hispanic Second Generation
is a very young group, Fry said, it constitutes a very significant
portion of the community, and people analyzing Hispanic
voting trends will be watching it.
Another factor affecting Hispanics' political
clout is that about 25 percent are ineligible to vote because
they are not U.S. citizens. Although organizations such
as the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials (NALEO) and the Spanish-language Univision television
network actively promote citizenship drives, the naturalization
process is not quick.
“You don’t simply decide to
become a citizen,” he said, adding that not every
community member is even eligible to apply since there are
residency requirements for voting along with the citizenship
test. “It’s not clear how quickly those drives
for 2008 actually produce voters,” he said. But, as
more go through the process of becoming citizens, Hispanics
will be in a position to affect future elections more.
Hispanic-American political demonstrators
in Arizona march for immigration rights in 2006. (©
AP Images)The third factor is the lack of participation
in elections by many Hispanics who are U.S. citizens, according
to Fry. In 2006, for example, only 5.6 million of the 17.3
million eligible Hispanic voters participated.
This factor is “not unique”
to the community since “Hispanics, like African Americans
don’t register at the rate whites do and they don’t
vote at the same rates that whites do,” Fry said,
but Pew research data showed they were even less likely
to vote than their African-American counterparts.
Ahead of the 2004 election there were many
efforts to get Hispanic Americans to vote, and when compared
to the 2000 election, both registration and voting rates
rose. However, Fry said, white registration and voting rates
increased even more. “So keep in mind that we can
have Hispanic mobilization efforts but it’s also the
case that we can have mobilization efforts in segments of
the white population as well,” he said.
COMMON TRENDS ACROSS RACIAL, ETHNIC LINES
Fry said that despite the community’s
2006 mobilization in favor of immigration reform and recent
state and federal actions that target illegal immigrants,
“it’s hard to know how some of the changes in
the political environment are or are not going to mobilize
Hispanics” in 2008.
Data from 2004 actually indicates that immigration,
while on the minds of many Hispanic voters, was not one
of the top issues of concern.
A Pew survey of Hispanic registered voters
before the 2004 election asked about issues “extremely
important in determining their vote for president,”
and found education was the top concern with 54 percent,
economic and health care issues tied for second at 51 percent,
and concerns over terrorism were third at 45 percent. Immigration
factored in at 27 percent. Fry said the figures show Hispanic-American
voters have very similar priorities as their white and African-American
counterparts, with the main difference being the level of
concern over education.
Like other groups, Hispanics have seen a
split within their community along religious lines. “Growing
numbers of Hispanic adults are non-Catholic, and particularly
evangelical [Christian],” Fry said. Hispanic evangelicals
are a growing group, attracting more of the U.S.-born population.
Pew data found that while only 33 percent
of Hispanic Catholics voted for President Bush over Democratic
challenger John Kerry in 2004, some 56 percent of Hispanics
who identified themselves as non-Catholic Christians voted
Republican.
“Hispanics are not unique in sort
of having this religious divide. It’s just that in
2004 the religious divide was a little bit sharper among
Hispanics,” Fry said.
For related stories, see U.S.
Elections and Hispanic
Americans.
By Stephen Kaufman
USINFO Staff Writer
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