Monday Open Line


National Hispanic Heritage Month continues, and much media prominence given to this 55 million-strong community centers on the growing heft of the Hispanic vote in elections. Already 17 percent of America’s population, it is projected to number nearly 129 million by the year 2060. In the 2012 election, over 11 million Hispanics, or 48 percent of those eligible, cast ballots. This is a decline from 2008, when just less than 50 percent of eligible Hispanics voted. But the 2012 figure did surpass the percentages in the 2000 and 2004 elections, which reached 45 and 47 percent, respectively. Nearly 62 percent of the eligible public cast their ballots in the 2012 elections, down from nearly 64 percent in 2008. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.