LatinaLista — We knew it all along — Latinos turned out in record numbers to vote in the 2008 presidential election.
(Source: Boston.com)
The only problem was that too many different sources were delivering too many different sets of turnout figures.
Well, it only took eight months for the U.S. Census to compile the data but it’s now official — 2 million more Latinos turned out to vote in the 2008 election than cast a vote in 2004.
According to the U.S. Census, 131 million people turned out to vote. While there was an increase among Latinos and Asians, young people (18-24) and Blacks registered the most gains.
Some interesting facts the Census uncovered:
The increase included about 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged.
Additionally, voters 18 to 24 were the only age group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent in 2008 compared with 47 percent in 2004. Blacks had the highest turnout rate among 18- to 24-year-old voters — 55 percent, an 8 percent increase from 2004.
Relative to the presidential election of 2004, the voting rates for blacks, Asians and Hispanics each increased by about 4 percentage points. The voting rate for non Hispanic whites decreased by 1 percentage point.
By sex, women had a higher voting rate (66 percent) than males (62 percent). Neither was statistically different from 2004.
