Elections

Over the last several election cycles much has been said about the potential impact of the Latino vote. Would 2012 be the year the sleeping giant, composed of roughly 24 million eligible Latino voters, awakes? Based on Tuesday’s preliminary results, the answer is a resounding yes.

With so many stories coming from so many other states about purported voter fraud and attempts at marginalizing minority voters, the narrative was quite the opposite in the Golden State.

Although you might not know it given that the mobilization of the Latino voting bloc is one of the main reasons cited by the media for President Obama’s re-election, California’s electorate does not yet reflect the state population’s racial diversity.

Well over three quarters of the eligible voters in California registered to vote, or about 18.2 million people in total, according to an official statement released by Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office. Although the approximately 986,000 new voters who registered in the 45 days prior to the October 22 deadline doesn’t surpass 2008’s record 1.2 million tally in the same timeframe, this year’s surge is still significant and the overall number does represent a new record total.

What impact is California’s new Top Two Primary law really going to have on California politics? It’s a question that will be better answered after Tuesday’s election, but there’s no doubt it has changed the political landscape of California.

Twenty two national Asian Pacific Islander American organizations have joined forces to create the first comprehensive overview on nine critical California ballot measures.