Hispanics punch below their weight in midterm elections

*If all we needed was a different metaphor to tell the same story we’d by OK. But how else do you say the same thing – over and over –  and make it sound interesting? The latest Pew Research Center numbers reaffirm what we’ve been hearing, that Latino voters won’t turn out for the mid-term elections. Latinos are reportedly dissatisfied with the President over immigration, and upset at the GOP over the same thing. But that’s not why Latino turnout will be low. Latinos won’t go to the polls for the mid-terms because that’s what they do. Somewhere in the fifth paragraph of this piece: “A low voter turnout rate among Hispanics stretches back several midterm elections. Since 1986, the turnout rate has dropped from 38% to 31.2% in 2010.” Is that punching below their weight? Yeah. But it’s nothing new. What now? VL

By Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Hispanic Center

Hispanics have voted in record numbers in recent years, but their turnout rate continues to lag behind whites and blacks, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.

Hispanics today make up 11.3% of all eligible voters. But voter turnout among Hispanics has not kept pace with the growing number of eligible voters in recent national elections. In 2010,Hispanics cast a record 6.6 million ballots out of 21.3 million eligible voters, a turnout rate of 31.2%. But that was still far below the turnout among black voters (44%) and white voters (48.6%).

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Joe Shlabotnik]

 

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