USC study suggests lawmakers more likely to ignore Latino constituents

Stickers in English and Spanish are available for voters at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 in Washington, DC. The latest polls continue to show a tight race between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Researchers found that emails with an Anglo-sounding name were more likely to get a reply from legislators compared to the exact same email but with a Spanish-sounding name.

A new USC study suggests that lawmakers are not as responsive to people with Spanish-sounding names compared to those with Anglo names.

In 2012, political science professors Christian Grose and Matthew Mendez randomly sent emails to more than 1,800 state lawmakers in 14 states.

The emails read:

Hello (Representative/Senator NAME),

My name is (voter NAME) and I have heard a lot in the news lately about identification being required at the polls. I do not have a driver’s license. Can I still vote in November? Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
(voter NAME)

Some emails had the voter's name "Jacob Smith," while others had the name, "Santiago Rodriguez. Grose and Mendez found that these legislators were far more likely to respond to the name "Jacob Smith."

"About 50 percent responded to the name 'Jacob,'" says Grose, "and about 40 percent responded to the Latino name, 'Santiago.'"

The conclusion they have is that there may be a subconscious racial bias by lawmakers, and that it leads to a poor quality of representation for Latinos.

"It's a little bit surprising because, for the Democratic Party in most of these states, Latino voters including Spanish-speaking voters are part of the base coalition," says Grose. "Then in these states the Republican Party has made serious efforts to reach out to Latinos, so presumably both parties have incentives to respond to somebody who speaks Spanish."