Obama v. Romney Polls: Obama Slipping Among Latinos, Romney Stagnant

With about three weeks left until a record number of Latinos are expected to go to the polls, a new poll has revealed that President Obama's hold on the Latino community is slipping.

A ImpreMedia & Latino Decisions poll shows that Obama is slightly down among Latinos after the debate, but GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is stuck in the low 20s.

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.

According to the report, support for Obama slipped from 72 percent last week to 67 percent this week, which could mean that his debate performance also led some Latino voters to re-evaluate the president.

Among those who said they are certain to vote for Romney increased slightly from 20 percent last week to 23 percent this week.

The poll found that 76 percent of all Latinos said Obama and Romney's performance in the presidential debates was important in how they evaluated a candidate.

"The debate, and perhaps more importantly the press coverage after the debate, affected Latino voters like all others," Gary Segura of Latino Decisions said. "Support for the president, and enthusiasm for turning out to vote, have both dropped measurably. This effect extends to his party. While the president still enjoys a considerable advantage over Governor Romney and the Republicans, it is clear that he and his campaign have serious work to do to recover the heights they reached in the post-convention bounce."

The attention that Latinos were getting before the debates has shifted as the campaigns prepare for the final stretch to the Nov. 6 elections and according to the pollsters, "enthusiasm among Latinos voters has slightly dropped indicating the race may have turned more into a matter of turnout rather than candidate support."

According to the poll, two weeks ago, 93 percent of voters described themselves as "very enthusiastic" or "somewhat enthusiastic" about the election. That number has plummeted to 81 percent in this week's poll.

According to data from the poll, 32 percent of registered Latino voters identify as Independent, and within this group 51 percent, say they are planning to vote for President Obama, 29 percent say they will vote for Romney and 20 percent are undecided.

Fifty-three percent of Latinos said they think Democrats were doing a good job of reaching out to Hispanics compared to 65 percent a week ago, again suggesting the President's debate performance impacted support for the party as well. A stagnant 17 percent of Latinos say the GOP was doing a good job of outreach to Hispanics.