With less than four months before the elections, the vote of independents is becoming ever-increasingly crucial and, according to a survey from the Hispanic Federation and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), in the case of Hispanics, is strongly influenced by the attitudes of lawmakers towards immigration reform.
La Opinión had advance access to the new study, "U.S. Latinos: Perceptions and Actions," released July 14 in Washington. With 504 surveyed and a margin of error of 4 percent, the study is intended to reflect the priorities of voters in this group.
In it, 78 percent of participants said they considered immigration reform as an "extremely important" issue, in the context of priorities such as job creation and the economy.
The study, carried out by LatinoMetrics, indicates that six in 10 Hispanics are registered to vote, and among those who are not, one in four intends to do so before November. This implies that voting may increase from 62 percent to 70 percent of the Latino population.
The figures also indicate that the majority of those surveyed identify themselves as Democrats (54 percent), whilst 13 percent see themselves as Republicans and 11 percent call themselves independent.
It is this group that is most highly targeted by both parties, now more than ever, after even the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recognized that the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives is at stake in the forthcoming elections.
"U.S. Latinos: Perceptions and Actions" indicates that amongst independent voters, 51 percent would support candidates or a party that would drive forward immigration reform, while only 16 percent would strongly support candidates that opposed it.
Furthermore, among Hispanic voters favoring immigration reform, if the proposed law is not approved, 55 percent say they would consider different candidates or parties to those that they currently support and 45 percent would retract their support for any candidate. Moreover, between 35 percent and 48 percent said that they would not "forgive those who did not work for reform."
The survey also showed the perceptions among Latinos of the effects of the Arizona law, including the possibility that similar initiatives might be brought into force in other states. In this regard, 8 in 10 Hispanics stated their disagreement with the SB1070 law and 20 percent suggested that they would be less inclined to report more serious crimes to the police if this law came into force, with a further 30 percent saying they would be less inclined to report minor crimes. Likewise, between 36 percent and 37 percent reported that they would be less inclined to participate in civic and cultural events if the law was passed.
