I was looking over the results of the Politico Battleground poll for the 2012 election. The most disturbing statistic was that only 64 percent of Latinos surveyed said that they were “extremely likely” to vote in the upcoming election. That number was 13 percent lower than whites and 17 percent lower than blacks.
After a decade of increasing Latino voter participation, that trend may be in danger of reversal as elected leaders fail to address issues, like immigration, that most impact on Latino families. The lack of any real progress on immigration reform, coupled with politicians who seem unable to listen to this rapidly growing community, may result in new voter alienation, hardly a path to power for Latinos.