-thumb-110x110-461780.jpg)
Simply Wrong Food: IHOP's Holiday Pancakes
-thumb-110x110-461916.jpg)
Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
Eat My Blog: Blogger Bake Sale Will Benefit LA Foodbank
DVD Review: Kobe Doin' Work
Review: Living In Emergency
In a first of its kind study released today, it was found that potential immigrant voters and their children could constitute nearly one-third of state voters by 2012, according to the LA Times. The analysis detailed populations in each of the state's legislative districts.
At 2.7 million immigrants, Los Angeles County had the highest number of potential voters, those that are "naturalized U.S. citizens, legal immigrants eligible for citizenship and their children ages 12 to 17." Within the county, the San Gabriel Valley holds the highest concentration. Orange, Santa Clara and San Diego counties follow in the numbers statewide which add up to 7.7 million.
Organizers of the study hope the information can help politicians make better decisions within their district and that it will jump start more civic action to help immigrants. However, some believe that it could take time before immigrant voters become a decisive vote in elections statewide as voter turnout is still uneven. "In 2004, for instance, non-Latino adult whites were 47% of the state population but 65% of voters."
Photo by pardeshi via Flickr
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
There are a few things to consider when reading the LA Times article. The terms White and Latino are not synonymous with "Non-immigrant" and "immigrant". There are plenty of white immigrants pouring in from places like Ireland and Canada, our neighbor to the north.
Also, although the term Latino can refer to "a person of Latin-American origin living in the United States" it can also mean "a person of Latin-American descent".
So comparing immigrant population and non-immigrant population to white and Latino voters is really apples and oranges.
Just as the end of this post states, "Latino" voter turnout is unbelievably low. Check out this statistic for California voters:
Analysis of the 2004 presidential
election has shown that Latinos account for 31% of the state’s population, 23% of adult citizens eligible to vote, and only 18% of voters in the election.
- California Demographic Futures