The New Face of the Voter: Young and Latino

“My father says I have to vote,” Chavero said as his father, standing next to him, jumped in.

“Yes he will,” his father said in Spanish. “I have two daughters and they are also registered to vote. Now everybody in my family is registered to vote and we are all going to vote.”

Why?

“Immigration reform,” he said.

That's a common story among new young Latino voters.

According to a San Diego Union-Tribune analysis of the county registration rolls, the number of new voters with Spanish surnames has increased dramatically from last year, from 5,202 to about 8,700. Young people – 18-to 25-year-olds – are leading the way.

The number of young Latinos who registered to vote between January and October jumped 84 percent from the same period last year.

They accounted for 56 percent of all new Latino registrants.

In comparison, young non-Latinos represented 48 percent of the total number of non-Latinos who registered in the same period.

Latinos represent about 14 percent of the county's 1.36 million registered voters, about 188,000.

It is difficult to say how much of the growth was related to the debate over illegal immigration, to election-year cycles (2005 had a lower profile), to the war in Iraq, or to the natural demographic growth of Latinos, generally a younger population.

It is too early to determine its long-term impact.

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