Latino Voters Largely Undecided — and Untapped

By Daniela Altimari On October 16, 2012 · 1 Comment

A new survey of Latino voters in Connecticut found that they are largely undecided in the hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

The survey was small — just 100 voters were sampled — but “it’s an accurate poll,” says Wilson Camelo, a director of Pulso, which conducted the questioning.

While Latino voters registered in Connecticut overwhelmingly support President Obama — just 6 percent back Republican Mitt Romney — the Senate race is a different story: 56 percent of those questioned could not even name one of the candidates without being prompted.

Among those who could name one of the candidates, 19 percent said they’d back Democrat Chris Murphy while 16 percent favored Republican Linda McMahon.

“Connecticut has a potentially powerfully Latino voting bloc that remains untapped,” Camelo said.

Camelo noted that Connecticut’s Latino population is primarily Puerto Rican, which means they have voting rights, unlike Latino immigrants from Latin America, who predominate in other states.

Both Senate candidates have taken steps to target Latino voters by running ads on Spanish-language radio stations.

But they could do more, Camelo said. “This is a population with which you have to develop a relationship over time, not just wait until the last three weeks before the election to do your outreach,” he said.

The survey of 100 voters was conducted by phone from Oct. 9 through 11, after both the presidential candidates and the Senate candidates had held their first debates. Sixty-seven percent of the interviews were conducted in Spanish.

One Response to Latino Voters Largely Undecided — and Untapped

Kim says:

October 16, 2012 at 3:05 pm

anyone – Latino or otherwise – who has come to this country (legally or illegally), came here for one of three reasons: they want handouts or they want the opportunity to be productive members of society, take pride in their work, and raise their families under American laws, and/or they came to escape tyranny so they could make their OWN choices about how to live.

If they want handouts, they’ll vote for Obama.

If they want to continue with tyranny, they’ll vote for Obama. ALL people – including minorities and illegals – need to realize that eventually Obama’s way of thinking will turn THEM into slaves for the system just as it is doing for taxpayers now. SOMEONE has to pay for government and handouts. Most recent immigrants already know what it feels like to work to support government and it’s excess.

If they want to take pride in themselves and be responsible for themselves and pass on these values to their children, they WON’T vote for Obama.