24M Latinos Eligible to Vote, But Turnout Rate Lagged That of Whites, Blacks

In 35 days, Americans will go to the polls to elect the next commander-in-chief.

Latinos will play a decisive role in the presidential elections - The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials projected more than 12.2 million Latino voters are expected to cast ballots on Election Day, an increase of 26 percent from 2008. That number is about half of the 23.7 million Latinos are eligible to vote in the 2012 presidential election, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

In Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama officials have published voter registration statistics for Hispanics.

In Florida, 1.6 million Hispanics are registered to vote as of mid-July, up from 1.4 million in 2008. In Georgia, 105,000 Hispanics are registered to vote this year, up from 82,000 in 2008. In North Carolina, about102,000 Hispanics are registered to vote as of September 22, up from 68,000 in 2008. In Alabama,15,000 Hispanics were registered to vote as of August, up from 12,000 in 2008.

A new research from the Pew Hispanic Center may shed some light about why only half of eligible Latino voters actually cast ballots. The center said in 2008, 50 percent of eligible Latino voters cast ballots, compared with 65 percent of blacks and 66 percent of whites.

According to the center, in 2010, the number of Hispanic registered voters was 11.0 million, down from the record 11.6 million in 2008.

Authors Mark Hugo Lopez, Seth Motel, and Eileen Pattern suggests that the nation's unstable economy might have an influence on getting Hispanics registered to vote.

"Because the foreclosure and housing crisis hit Hispanics harder than other groups, many Hispanics may have had to move," the authors wrote. "That could mean that a disproportionate share of their voter registrations lapsed as a result of a change of address."

According to the report, about 17 percent of all Hispanic eligible voters live in battleground states-Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia andWisconsin.6

Researchers noted that Florida - who could play a crucial role in the presidential decision- has are more than 2 million Hispanics who are eligible to vote and make up about 16 precent of the state's eligible voters.

The center found that Latino eligible voters are younger than either white or black eligible voters. About 32 percent of all Hispanic eligible voters are ages 18 to 29, compared with 19 percent among whites and 25 percent among blacks. Only 11 percent of Latino eligible voters are ages 65 or older, compared with 21 percent of white or 14 percent of black eligible voters.