Study: Hispanic voters increasing, changing

Study: Hispanic voters increasing, changing

The number of Hispanic voters in Florida is growing -- and many are registering independent.
Posted on Thu, May. 29, 2008

BY LUISA YANEZ


The makeup of Florida's Hispanic voters -- currently 1.2 million strong -- has undergone a dramatic shift in the past eight years, according to a study released Wednesday by Democracia U.S.A.

Among the group's findings in Miami-Dade, Broward and statewide:

• Hispanics now constitute half of Miami-Dade's electorate -- 559,195 voters as of Wednesday. Cuban Americans remain a majority of Hispanic voters in the county, but their numbers have dipped from 75 percent in 2000 to 58 percent in 2008. Statewide, for the first time, Cubans are no longer the majority among Hispanic voters.

• Since 2000, the number of registered Republicans in Miami-Dade has dropped 11 percentage points, but that loss has not necessarily translated into a pure gain for the Democratic Party, which saw an increase of two percentage points during the same period.

• New Hispanic voters are often choosing to be independents, increasing their numbers in Miami-Dade from 18 percent to the current 27 percent.

• In still heavily Democratic Broward County, Hispanic voters have more than doubled, from 5 percent in 2000 to the current 13 percent, or 124,100 voters. They, too, are largely registering Democratic.

The findings by the national nonpartisan Hispanic civil engagement and voter registration group detail the changes and the importance of the Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election.

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