La Opinión, News Report, Posted: Nov 07, 2011

LOS ANGELES—As the nation prepares for elections Tuesday, a report in Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión notes that the Latino vote continues to grow. The number of Latino voters has consistently increased with each election, and the gap among those who are eligiable to vote and those who actually go to polls is decreasing, reports La Opinón. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) projects that by 2012 there will be 23.5 million Latino citizens of voting age. An estimated 14 million will be registered to vote, while some 12.2 million are exoected to cast ballots.

In the 2008 presidential elections, there were 19 million Latino citizens of voting age, 11 million registered voters and 9.7 million Latino voters who went to the polls. 

The Latino vote could have a signifcant impact on battleground states as Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida, La Opinión reports. Florida and California have the seen the biggest increase in Latino voters. Florida’s Latino vote is expected to increase by 35 percent so that Latinos will make up 34 percent of the state’s vote. In California, the Latino vote will increase by 32 percent to account for a total of 23 percent of the state’s vote.