Obama could get record number of latino vote

Marcus Atkinson

HispanicOhio.com editor

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A recent Latino Decision poll shows President Obama is on pace to gain a record number of Latino votes (73 percent), the previous record is held by President Bill Clinton.

 

“With 11 weeks of tracking, we are headed towards a record level of Latino votes for a Democratic presidential candidate,” Matt Barreto, principal investigator for Latino Decisions told NBC Latino. “If Latinos turnout at the high rates we are expecting, they could deliver Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Virginia to Obama,”

 

The poll shows 73 percent of likely Latino voters say they plan to vote for Obama, while 24 percent for Mitt Romney and; 3 percent are undecided.  If Obama does win 73 percent or higher of the Latino vote, it would beat the 72 percent Bill Clinton received in his 1996 victory over Republican Bob Dole.

 

Romney’s campaign has already admitted to needing at least 38 percent of the Latino vote to win this year’s election.  President Bush won the 2004 election with 40 percent of the Latino vote. In 2008 President Obama received 66 percent of the Latino vote, defeating Ariz. Senator John McCain.