Latino Voters Expected To Account For More Than 20 Percent Of Arizona Electorate

Published: Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 6:08pm
Updated: Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 7:12pm
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Paul Atkinson/KJZZ

On this Election Day in Arizona, at least one thing seems certain: the Latino vote in the state will count more than ever.

In 2012, Latinos in the state accounted for a record 17 percent of the electorate. This year that chunk is expected to surpass 20 percent, with well over 1 million eligible Latino voters and at least 70 percent of them expected to turn out this election.

Phoenix lobbyist Jaime Molera, a former Republican state schools chief, says much of the increase can be linked to Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy — but that it must be sustained.

“When you put all those factors together, I’m hopeful this will lead to not an anomaly of people voting because they’re mad, I’m hoping that it will also lead to people voting
Because they know that in order to affect our government, they need to be engaged," he said.

This year alone, voter-registration groups in Arizona have claimed to register more than 150,000 new Latino voters for this election. 

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