Florida's new Puerto Rican residents poised to have a big impact on midterm elections

[babylonsister]

https://thinkprogress.org/activists-hope-new-puerto-rican-residents-in-florida-could-swing-midterms-2bf2687fb26f/

Florida’s new Puerto Rican residents poised to have a big impact on midterm elections
Advocacy groups are helping to register citizens who left the island after the hurricane.
Kira Lerner
Aug 30, 2018, 2:00 pm


ORLANDO, FLORIDA — On a sweltering Sunday — the last day of early voting before Florida’s primary — a group of volunteers sat beneath a tent outside a public library in Orlando, waiting for Spanish-speaking voters to approach them with questions about the election.

Latinos make up almost a quarter of Florida’s population and roughly 18 percent of the state’s electorate, and that number is growing. After Hurricane Maria left nearly 3,000 people dead and caused over $140 billion in damage to Puerto Rico in September of 2017, roughly 18,000 U.S. citizens relocated from the island to Florida, largely concentrating themselves in the Orlando area.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and legally eligible to vote in Florida as soon as they arrive. While early data this year showed no meaningful change in the number of registered Latino voters in the state, advocacy groups like Mi Familia Vota set out to change that in the weeks before the August 28 primary. The group is launching voter registration drives as well as education campaigns to inform Florida’s new residents of their rights and the importance of remaining politically engaged, despite their disillusionment with government.

“Since April, we’ve registered 13,000 voters and 51 percent are Puerto Rican,” Orlyn Itriago, a lead canvasser with Mi Familia Vota, told ThinkProgress in Spanish from the tent outside the polls.

snip//

As November approaches, Itriago says she and her volunteers will continue going to supermarkets, schools, and other public locations to register and educate voters.

“It’s a job with a lot of responsibility because it is an organization that is mainly dedicated to find, mobilize, and register Latino voters, and that is complicated,” she said. “It’s important to teach them how important it is to vote in these elections happening now.”

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Finally!

I saw articles earlier this summer that few were registering... But then I do know that most folks are not thinking "elections" when they are trying to get updates on the status of their homes and stabilize their lives in their new or temporary residences. They can make or break the election there.

[Funtatlaguy]

2. We really need Gillum/Nelson to beat the vermin DeSantis/Scott

[Awsi Dooger]

7. Scott has been shamelessly courting the Puerto Ricans

He was aware of this situation and has made at least a half dozen trips to Puerto Rico, along with attending events in Florida attended by Puerto Rican transplants and aiming advertising at them. Unfortunately it has paid off, as described in this article:

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/07/01/poll-rick-scott-far-more-popular-among-puerto-rican-florida-voters-than-donald-trump/

"A fascinating poll of Puerto Rican Floridian commissioned by Florida International University shows how well Gov. Rick Scott has separated himself from Donald Trump among one of the state's most coveted groups of voters.

More than seven in 10 of the 1,000 Puerto Ricans interviewed for the poll commissioned by Florida International University have a bad a very bad opinion of President Trump. By contrast, more than 55 percent have a good or very good opinion of Gov. Scott — a whopping 82 percent among those who moved to Florida since 2017 when Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

Scott has repeatedly visited the island since Maria and aggressively courted Puerto Ricans in Florida. He is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who has been sharply critical of the Trump administration's response to the disaster.Nelson is considerably less popular among recent transplants to Florida, with 57 percent having a positive view of the Senator, lower than his Republican colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio, who was viewed positively by 61 percent."

***

This type of thing is more obvious to us who live in Florida than it must be for outsiders. Scott barely won in 2010 and 2014 amidst major advantage for his party nationally. This time he sensed the odds would be stacked against him against an incumbent in a blue year, so he has gotten the jump on one variable after another, and it has paid off. His current image statewide is ridiculous compared to what a scumbag he actually is.

[Scurrilous]

3. Good news!

[sarah FAILIN]

4. They better hurry and register.

It was my understanding the Republicans had more show for the Primary. That does not look good.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Was hoping this would come true...

[Roland99]

6. Nice change of pace from a few months ago

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210931546

[DonCoquixote]

8. and the yahoos are already mad

Talking about armed men going to voter centersto question whether people can vote.