During the summer, Republicans expressed optimism that Mitt Romney would be able to rake up more support among Latino voters before the elections. But the latest impreMedia-Latino Decisions tracking poll shows the Republican presidential candidate hasn’t improved his favorability among Latinos.
The poll released Monday shows President Barack Obama has the support of 73 percent of Latino registered voters while 21 percent of them say they favor Romney. In August, when impreMedia-Latino Decisions began its weekly tracking poll, Obama held a 65 to 26 percent lead over Romney.
The current 52-point gap matches the president’s widest lead among Latinos this year. It also tops the support Obama received from Latino voters in the 2008 election. That year, Obama won the Latino vote by 67 to 31 percent.
The poll also found enthusiasm to vote is up among Latino voters. Of The 300 Latino voters surveyed, 45 percent said they are more enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming elections than they were in 2008. That number is up 37 percent from 10 weeks ago.
Eighty-seven percent of Latino voters also said they are almost certain they will vote on Nov. 6, including 8 percent of Latino voters who said they already cast their ballots. Census data shows 84 percent of Latinos voted in 2008.
“The poll shows that this year we can anticipate record participation among Latino voters,” stated Monica Lozano, CEO of impreMedia. “It looks like the ‘Sleeping Giant’ has woken up.”
But while Latinos are enthusiastic to vote, the poll found that a significant portion of them think that neither candidate will improve the prospects of several issues.
On the prospects of an immigration reform, 52 percent think there is a bigger chance of passing it under Obama while 37 percent say it makes no difference if the president is re-elected. On improving compromise and cooperation in Congress, 45 percent of Latino voters think there would be an improvement of cooperation in Congress under an Obama presidency while 43 percent think a Romney presidency wouldn’t make a difference.
Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, stated that both candidates have one week left to make their case to Latino voters.
“While Obama has maintained a large lead among Latinos throughout the campaign, the data shows that over one-third of Latino voters are not sure that things will actually improve under a second Obama term,” he said.
Barreto also said the tracking data has shown that Latino voters point to the constant feuding in Congress as the main reason why the economy has not recovered. On that issue, he said more than 40 percent of Latino voters think that regardless of whether Obama or Romney wins, neither candidate can bring cooperation to Congress.
“In the final week of this campaign, the candidates need to connect with Latino voters and explain how they will somehow be able to break the impasse in Congress and get things done,” Barreto added.
This article originally appeared on VOXXI.com
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