Immigration Rallies Fail To Spark Surge Of New Voters
An article in the Mercury News details an Associated Press study showing that the large immigration rallies last Spring have not resulted in increased voter registration among Hispanics. Excerpts from the article:
Protest organizers -- principally unions, Latino advocacy groups and the Catholic Church -- acknowledge that it has been hard to translate street activism into voting clout, though they insist they can reach their goal of 1 million new voters by 2008.
``I was anticipating a huge jump in registration. I didn't see it,'' said Jess Cervantes, a veteran California political operative whose company analyzes Latino voting trends. ``When you have an emotional response, it takes time to evolve.''
It is impossible to count exactly how many new registrants were inspired by the new movement, because counties typically do not ask for race or ethnicity.
New registrations were up this year compared with last year, but they were well below the numbers in 2004, and the increase is not surprising at a time Democrats and Republicans are struggling for control of Congress. Even without that factor, the numbers do not indicate the watershed awakening advocates had envisioned.
Latino voters are a pivotal voting bloc, especially with their numbers projected to continue to grow. But they have long voted in numbers far below their share of the population, in part because many are under 18 or not U.S. citizens. A study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that while Latinos accounted for half the nation's population growth between the 2000 and 2004 elections, they represented only one-tenth of the increase in votes cast.
