North Carolina has added 7,107 registered Latino voters this year, the fourth-highest total in the U.S., a positive sign for Democrat Hillary Clinton winning the battleground state this November, according to a report Thursday by The Hill.
California, Texas and Florida – three states with larger Latino populations than North Carolina – are the only other states to have added more registered Latinos, according to Voto Latino, a group which has worked to register almost 109,000 voters this year, according to The Hill.
"These are states that might not have the same foundational organizations that have done the work for many years," Mario Carrillo, Voto Latino's communications director, told The Hill.
North Carolina is an important battleground this November, and Clinton has been ahead in polls there, including by six points in the latest Elon University Poll released Tuesday.
"Every vote will matter this year as another close vote takes place," Héctor Vaca, ActionNC director, told The Hill. "We've seen a difference this election. A lot more people are motivated to vote because of all this hateful rhetoric. . . .
"Latino voters in North Carolina are sadly no strangers to the anti-immigrant agenda of Donald Trump and his party. [It's] making it easier to register voters."
North Carolina had fewer than one million Latinos in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center, per The Hill, but Vaga said the Hispanic population now accounts for 2 percent of registered voters in the state.
"North Carolina has been extremely engaged, especially on digital," Lizet Ocampo, director of People for the American Way's Latinos Vote program, told The Hill.
"In 2012, North Carolina's margin of victory for [Mitt] Romney was 92,004 votes. In 2012, there were 169,000 Latinos who were eligible to vote. About 95,000 voted, 74,000 didn’t vote."
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