Are Puerto Ricans Registering In Florida

A polling station at Miami Beach Metropolis Hall on Aug. 13. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Note: Updated statewide Hispanic voter registration totals that reverberate final volume-closing numbers have been published here.

The number of Hispanic registered voters in Florida has increased 6.2% since the 2016 presidential election, to a record two.1 million people. This is slightly faster growth than during the 2014 and 2010 midterm cycles, which saw iv.half dozen% and v.two% increases over the prior presidential election year, respectively, co-ordinate to a Pew Research Center analysis of Florida country government data.

Hispanics now make up a record sixteen.4% of Florida'south registered voters, up from 15.seven% in 2016. The number of Hispanic registered voters has grown more than three times as fast as the overall number of registered voters in the past two years (half dozen.2% growth vs. 1.8% growth, every bit of Aug. 31). Floridians had until Oct. 9 to register to vote, so the number of registered voters for this midterm cycle is likely to have increased further since Baronial. (While the growth in Hispanic voters this year exceeds that of the by 2 midterm ballot years, it still trails the growth in recent presidential election years.)

Puerto Ricans have been the land's fastest-growing Hispanic-origin group over the past decade, and thousands more arrived from the island following Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 – part of a broader movement of island residents to the U.S. mainland in contempo years. Between 2005 and 2016, well-nigh a third of these migrants settled in Florida, in an area betwixt the Orlando and Tampa Bay metro areas known as the Interstate four corridor. The state's Puerto Rican population at present rivals that of New York, the principal destination of the mid-20th century'south migration from the isle.

However, it is unclear to what extent recent migration from Puerto Rico accounts for the uptick in Hispanic registered voters this election cycle. The state'south information on Hispanic registered voters don't include the origins of these voters (Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, etc.) – and data on eligible voters, equally well as registered voters at the county level, tell a mixed story.

Puerto Ricans now represent nearly a third of Hispanic eligible voters in Florida

Puerto Ricans account for a rapidly increasing share of Florida's Hispanic eligible voters – U.South. citizens who are 18 years or older, regardless of whether they have registered to vote. Puerto Ricans now make up about a third (31%) of these adults, a similar share to that of Cubans (31%), according to a separate Pew Research Centre analysis of U.South. Census Agency data.

The number of island-built-in Puerto Ricans eligible to vote in Florida has increased 30%, or about 126,000 people, since 2016. The number born in the U.S. mainland grew only iii%, or nearly 10,000 people. (Puerto Rican residents are U.S. citizens by birth and can register to vote once they move to the U.S. mainland.) Meanwhile, the number of Cuban eligible voters increased 4%.

Overall, the number of Hispanics eligible to vote in Florida has reached a loftier of nearly 3 million this twelvemonth, upwardly from two.nine 1000000 from 2016.

Island-born Puerto Ricans make up nearly a fifth (eighteen%) of Hispanic eligible voters in Florida, upward from 15% in 2014 and 2016. They also business relationship for the majority (59%) of all Puerto Rican eligible voters, upward from 53% in 2016.

Not all U.S. adults eligible to vote take the step to register as voters. In 2016, about 57% of Hispanic eligible voters nationwide reported having registered to vote, compared with 70% of all U.Due south. eligible voters.

Voter registration growth varies in counties with large Puerto Rican populations

While Hispanic voter registration is up statewide in Florida, there has been uneven growth at the county level, including in the counties that have large Puerto Rican populations (i.due east., with at least ten,000 Puerto Ricans).

Hispanic voter registration has grown faster than the statewide average of vi.two% in 14 of 18 Florida counties with the largest Puerto Rican populations. Most are in central Florida, with many of them along the I-4 corridor: Polk (sixteen.8% growth since 2016), Pasco (fifteen.9%), Osceola (14.9%), Lake (14.1%), Volusia (13.8%), Hernando (12.4), Pinellas (9.three%) and Seminole (8.8%) counties. These fourteen counties accounted for virtually half (45%) of Florida's Puerto Rican population in 2016.

These xiv counties also accounted for more than half (51.9%) of the growth in the state'south Hispanic registered voters since 2016. Overall, more than a quarter of Florida'southward Hispanic registered voters (27.v%) live in these counties.

At the same time, the four counties with the largest Puerto Rican populations in Florida had relatively slower Hispanic voter registration growth during the current midterm bicycle: Orange (6.2%), Broward (iii.6%), Hillsborough (iii.6%) and Miami-Dade (2.8%). Together, these four counties hold 64.nine% of all Hispanic registered voters.

Merely five counties with large Puerto Rican populations have seen faster Hispanic voter registration growth this year than in 2014: Seminole (9% vs. 0% in 2014), Marion (14% vs. v%), Volusia (14% vs. 6%), Pasco (16% vs. 8%) and Osceola (15% vs. 7%). Notwithstanding, these fast-growing counties account for just 21% of the statewide Puerto Rican population and just 11% of all Hispanic registered voters.

Florida Hispanics more likely to be registered every bit Democrats or no political party than as Republicans

Democrats and those without political party affiliation far outnumber Republicans among Hispanic registered voters in Florida so far this yr. At that place are well-nigh 837,000 registered Democrats and 775,000 unaffiliated voters, compared with 527,000 Republicans (again every bit of Aug. 31).

Since the 2016 election, the number of Hispanics registered every bit Democrats has increased by 5%, approximately twice the 2% growth rate for Hispanics registered every bit Republicans. The number of Hispanic registered voters with no party amalgamation has grown the fastest (14%).

In the midterm election of 2006, the party affiliations of Hispanic registered voters in Florida looked drastically different. At the time, more Hispanics were registered equally Republicans (414,000) than every bit Democrats (370,000) or with no party (313,000).