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Q&A – Spanish Misinformation & Hispanic/Latino Election Turnout in South Florida
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio dems are claiming reps are suppressing the vote with misinformation. sounds like bs. hasn’t turnout been rising?
Bottom Line: Yes, turnout has been rising in elections. Ditto voter registration, so, to your point, if there’s been an active misinformation campaign waged by Republicans to attempt to suppress the vote – it doesn’t seem to be working. Let’s start by diving into what’s behind this story. On Monday, the U.S. House Committee on House Administration hosted a roundtable at Miami-Dade College. The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss the impact of misinformation in elections. Notably, only Democrats were part of the panel, and a North Carolina Democrat chaired it. Additionally, Democrats from California and New Mexico were brought to South Florida to question the panel in addition to Central Florida’s Darren Soto and former South Florida Congresswomen Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Having that background probably paints a more instructive picture of what this event really was as opposed to how it was generally reported. And yes, it’s no surprise what the end result would be. So why was South Florida specifically targeted for this political stunt? Quoting participating New Mexico Democrat, Teresa Leger, Florida is becoming the incubator for misinformation in Spanish that then is exported. Let me decode for you. A record number of Spanish speaking Floridians are voting for Republicans, and they’re worried about the trend in other potential swing states.
The top examples of “evidence” of misinformation presented were an ad purchased in the El Nuevo Herald and a paid program which aired on a small AM radio station. That’s what brought this to the forefront, necessitating a House committee hearing in South Florida. That’s what we’re to believe has become the model exported across the country and is evidently supposed to be responsible for suppressing Hispanic and Latino voting in South Florida. Sound a bit thin? A paid programing on a small radio station and an ad in a newspaper? Yes, this really is as absurd as it sounds. Speaking of absurd... As you mentioned, voter turnout has been rising.
Here’s Florida’s voter turnout in the three most recent midterm election cycles:
- 2010: 49%, 2014: 51%, 2018: 63%
And the three most recent Presidential election cycles:
- 2012: 72%, 2016: 75%, 2020: 77%
Hmm. So, we’ve had a significant increase in voter participation in every subsequent election cycle over the past decade. That doesn’t exactly wash with voter suppression claims, does it? In fact, the 2020 election cycle, which is the one under the most scrutiny by the Committee, featured the highest voter turnout since the 1992 election and equaled the 2nd highest turnout in Florida’s history. Given that Hispanic/Latino voters made up a larger percentage of the voter bloc in Florida in 2020 than any time in the state’s history, how exactly is that consistent with voter suppression efforts? Obviously, it’s not and these facts bear it out.
- A record 17% of Florida voters in 2020 were Hispanic/Latino
- Hispanic/Latino participation rose by a total of 476,000 votes, or about 30% in 2020 from 2016
So, every fact destroys the narrative of voter suppression with the use of misinformation as the catalyst. Here’s what really has Democrats concerned. How the first time Hispanics and Latino voters are registering and how they’re voting.
- 32% registered as NPAs
- 31% registered as Republicans
- 19% registered as Democrats
The end result was Trump faring far better in Florida than in 2016, driven almost entirely by increased support with Hispanic/Latino voters. And nowhere was that more evident than in Miami-Dade where Trump fared 23-points better in 2020 than he did in 2016. That’s why the Commision hearing took place in Miami-Dade, and rather than attempting to deal with the realities that their party has moved so far left, they’ve lost many in the Hispanic/Latino community – they're attempting to conjure excuses for what happened and use the willful news media to perpetuate it. What they should realize is that South Florida’s voters have become more informed than ever before and what their fear is that others across the country will become equally informed.