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Poll Gauges Latino Youth VoteBy Caroline Stauffer The nonpartisan, Washington-D.C.-based organization Democracia USA recently interviewed 500 Hispanic voters between the ages of 18 and 29 to gain insight into their thoughts and feelings about the upcoming presidential election. Though 54 percent of those polled nationwide were American-born, 90 percent said there is “a lot” or “some discrimination” against Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. Immigration reform did not rank as the most important campaign issue for young Latinos. More of the subjects, both those interviewed in English and in Spanish, said the economy or the Iraq War ranked as their most important issue instead. Twenty-six percent of those polled in Spanish ranked immigration as their top priority – making immigration the third most pressing issue for this group. Education ranked third as the issue those polled in English considered most important. Just under half of the subjects said their vote will be similar to that of their parents. The poll indicated that young Hispanics get information from traditional media outlets in both English and Spanish. One fifth of those polled said they access social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace “every day or a few times a week”; only 13 percent access YouTube “every day or a few times a week”. Seventy-five percent of young Hispanic voters polled indicated that they have been following the election closely and 85 percent agreed with the statement “this election is one of the most important in American history.” |
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