Poll: Latino voters less energized - Scott Wong

A new poll finds that Latinos — a key bloc in Democrats’ electoral coalition — are less enthusiastic than voters overall about the looming midterm elections.

Nearly two-thirds of Latino registered voters, or 65 percent, plan to back the Democrat running in their local congressional race, according to the Pew Hispanic Center poll released Tuesday. Just 22 percent indicated they would cast a ballot for the Republican candidate.

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But the poll found that only a third of all Latino registered voters, or 32 percent, said they have given this year’s election “quite a lot” of thought. By contrast, half of all registered voters said the same thing.

When asked about whether they intend to vote, 51 percent of Latino voters said they are absolutely certain they will vote in the midterms, compared with 70 percent of all registered voters.

A depressed Latino voter turnout could spell trouble for Democratic candidates in several high-profile races this year, particularly in California, where Latinos make up nearly a fifth of the electorate.

Surprisingly, the national debate over immigration issues, including Arizona’s tough crackdown on illegal immigrants and a push by some groups to repeal birthright citizenship, is not one of Latino voters’ top concerns, Pew found.

The poll found that immigration is only the fifth most important issue for Latino registered voters and the fourth most important for all Latinos. Education, jobs and health care were the top three issues. Still, immigration is clearly a motivating factor among Latinos who are most likely to vote. But Pew also found that 66 percent of Latino registered voters had discussed immigration issues in the past year, and of that group, nearly three-fifths (58 percent) said they were absolutely certain to vote this year.

For the poll, Pew surveyed 1,375 Latinos across the country, including 618 registered voters, from Aug. 17 through Sept. 19.

via politico.com

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