The electoral battle to become president of the United States in 2024 was the fuel that mobilized the Latino electorate to cast their vote both nationally and in North Carolina, where 184,002 voters cast ballots.
This year, activist groups, both nonpartisan and partisan, focused all their efforts on educating and motivating Latinos to register to vote and participate in these highly contested elections. elecciones presidenciales.
Latino voters in North Carolina showed what has been seen in other elections: they prefer to cast their vote during early voting. This time, of the 327,319 registered for these elections, 65% voted early.
On the other hand, the number of registered Hispanic voters also increased exponentially, to 43% compared to the 2020 elections.
The number of registered voters is increasing, but participation is decreasing
Although the participation of the Hispanic voters decreased in these elections by about 2%, going from 59% in 2020 to 56.2% in 2024, the number of Hispanic registered voters between the 2020 and 2024 elections increased by 43%, going from 228,233 to 327,319 by November 5.
“The rapid growth of registered Hispanic voters does not necessarily translate into an increase in participation, at least in percentage terms,” he told Enlace Latino NC, Lennin Caro, researcher and analyst at the Camino Research Institute (CRI) and professor of Anthropology at UNCC.
Why the number of registered voters increased
Caro commented that this exponential increase in registered Hispanic voters may have several components.
“That 43% growth in four years is somewhat exaggerated, but I think that one of the reasons is that we are a young population, because half of the Latin population is young, many have already grown up and when they are going to get their driver's license They immediately register to vote, and that explains it to me,” Caro said.
The researcher also cited outreach activities carried out by organizations and groups that promote the Latino vote, many of which are focused on registering new voters.
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Latino vote increases 37% compared to other groups
Although Hispanics continue to participate in elections at lower rates than non-Hispanic white voters (79.19%) and non-Hispanic black voters (67.5%), the number of voters from these two racial groups decreased slightly from the 2020 to 2024 elections. However, the number of Hispanic voters increased numerically by almost 50,000 voters (37%).
Men aged 18 to 25 are the least likely to participate
In terms of age, Hispanic registered voters aged 18-25 had the lowest turnout among Hispanics, with only 46.9% of them voting.
However, when their data was analyzed by age and gender, the results showed that Hispanic men ages 18 to 25 had the worst turnout among Hispanic voters; while 55% of registered Hispanic women ages 18 to 25 turned out to vote for the 2024 election, 39% of Hispanic men in that age group voted.
What is worrying is that the participation of young Hispanic men (18-25) was notably worse in 2024 than in 2020, when 44.3% of Hispanic men aged 18-25 voted.
In comparison, turnout among Hispanic women ages 18-25 remained relatively flat between 2020 and 2024.
“It seems like the key to improving turnout among young Hispanic adults is to somehow get more young Hispanic men to the polls,” Caro said.
Latinos prefer to vote early
The Latino voter has shown his preference for voting early and in person, in line with the trend observed in elections in recent years.
This year, 119,438 Latino voters voted early (65%), while on November 5, Election Day, 52,805 voters did so (28.70%).
Compared to 2020, 61% of Latinos voted early (81,981), and on November 5, 19.27% (25,930) did so.
Only 7,793 (4.24%) Hispanic voters voted by mail. But in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, 24,025 preferred this voting method (17.85%).
Another 1,605 (0.87%) Latino voters chose to vote “curbside” early. In 2020, 1,316 voters (0.98%) did so.
Provisional ballots increased this year by 1,216 voters (0.66%), up from 746 four years ago (0.55%). A provisional ballot is used when a voter does not present a photo ID to vote in person. Votes are confirmed after a voter's eligibility is investigated.
A smaller group of Latinos voted “curbside” on Election Day, 212 (0.12%) and in 2020 it was 145 voters (0.11%).
While in this election there were 933 transferred votes (0.51%), and in 2020 425 ballots were transferred (0.32%). This type of vote is linked to changing the address to another county, outside the deadline to do so.
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Majority of Latinos are independent voters
Another aspect that the database provides is NCSBE) is the political preference of Hispanic voters. It was possible to see in these elections how independent voters surpassed those registered as Democrats and Republicans.
Independents now make up 42% of voters who turned out this year, compared to 39% (52,158) in the 2020 election.
Caro, 32, a professor at UNCC and member of the Latino Civic Participation Committee (LCEC), shared his vision regarding registering as an independent and not registering with any party.
“I think that being independent is a more general phenomenon, for example, young people do not identify with parties, they do not have much faith in the political process, and there is a lot of pessimism. For me, since 2016 there is less faith in democracy. I think that in the case of young Hispanics, the unfulfilled promises of politicians impact them,” said Caro.
Democrats lose ground
37.62% of voters (69,221) in this election were Democrats and 18.61% (34,251) were Republicans. In 2020, the democrats They made up 44.58% of the electorate and Republicans 15.65% (21,060), which could indicate that the Democratic Party is losing supporters, while the percentage of Republicans increased.
Less representative percentages of Latinos joined new parties: No Labels (0.91%), Libertarian (0.73%), Green Party (0.11%), Constitutional (0.01%), We The People (0.04%), and Justice for All (0.02%).
It takes “constancy” to convince the Latino
“It's paradoxical what we saw in these elections, how more Latino men voted for Trump. Maybe it's a symptom that the Democrats aren't making much of an effort to get people to vote for them, they assume they will. I don't see Republicans doing much either,” Caro noted.
According to Caro, neither party is investing time to understand the problems of the Latino community, which requires “consistency.”
“I think that convincing Latinos to vote must be a constant effort over many years, because Hispanics are more relational than transactional. I see that the funds to reach Latino voters arrive for the presidential elections, but then the momentum is lost,” said the analyst.
How many Latinos voted in the counties where there are more registered voters
Below is a table showing the 10 counties in North Carolina where there are the most latino voters registered, and how much was their participation in numbers and percentages in these 2024 presidential elections:
| COUNTY | REGISTERED VOTERS | TURNOUT WHO VOTED | PERCENTAGE % |
| MECKLENBURG | 50,538 | 29,426 | 58.2 |
| WAKE | 40,037 | 25.259 | 63.1 |
| GUILFORD | 16,043 | 9,271 | 57.8 |
| FORSYTH | 15,342 | 8,554 | 55.8 |
| CUMBERLAND | 15,360 | 7,531 | 49.0 |
| DURHAM | 13,522 | 8,361 | 61.8 |
| JOHNSTON | 10,350 | 5,785 | 55.9 |
| UNITY | 9,590 | 5,803 | 60.5 |
| CABARRUSS | 8,292 | 4,929 | 59.4 |
| BUNCOMBE | 5,939 | 3,518 | 59.2 |
Demographic data was obtained on December 5 from the North Carolina Board of Elections (NCBOE) database and may be updated in the future, which could slightly alter results regarding Latino voter turnout and overall voter turnout.
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