Not long ago the Salt Lake Tribune ran an article titled, “McAdams reaches for Latino voters in S.L. County mayor’s race.” The article sourced the U.S. Census bureau’s estimate that Salt Lake County’s Latino population is 17.1% of the total. It briefly described the campaign's various Latino initiatives, like “Latino Lunes,” one day a week reserved to focus on Latino issues, and do Spanish language phone banking.
Over a fifth of the age-eligible Latino population is not blessed with American citizenship. Regarding that fact there is little the McAdams campaign can do. Another factor is that the Latino population is young, very young, with over a third being under the age of 18. They can’t vote, and again, Ben can’t do much about that.
So where is the real opportunity? Where is the un-mined and achievable potential in the Latino electorate? Primarily, it’s in lagging participation rates among those eligible to vote. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, only 31.2% of eligible Latinos voted in 2010, compared to 48.6% percent for whites, and 44% for blacks.
Why is that the case? The Trib cited sociological explanations based on the uninspiring history of democracies in Latin countries. But again, Ben’s in no position to change history.
The one fact open to change returns to the youth of the Latino population. Whether Latino, white or Martian, young people vote at rates far below older populations. And in 2010, 31.3% of all Latinos eligible to vote were between 18 and 29. That percentage is half again as large as whites.
Distressingly, fewer than a fifth of of these young eligible Latinos voted in 2010.
So the challenge is not just reaching out to Latinos. Most particularly it’s finding a way to encourage young Latinos to vote.
All ideas as to how this can be done will be seriously entertained.
No comments:
Post a Comment