Latino Immigrants at the Polls: Foreign-born Voter Turnout in the 2002 Election

Research on voting and elections has generally found that Latino foreign-born citizens turnout to vote at lower rates than native-born Latinos as well as non-Latinos. Primarily as the result of lower levels of education, income, and English language skills, immigrant voters have demonstrated low levels of political participation. In addition, naturalized Latinos are rarely, if ever, the target of voter mobilization drives, further decreasing their likelihood to turnout. However, with extensive mobilization drives targeting naturalized voters in California in 2002, and low levels of political interest among the general electorate, higher rates of turnout among the foreign-born are anticipated. Probit models predicting turnout are explored here and the results reveal that in California in 2002, for the first time, Latino immigrant voters were significantly more likely to vote than were the native-born Latinos.