Two of California’s most prominent pollsters say that the state’s ethnic population is playing a more significant role in the outcome of elections.
Mark DiCamillo, Director of the Field Poll, and Mark Baldassare, President of the Public Policy Institute of California, gave a post-election analysis to the Sacramento Press Club.
DiCamillo says exit polls in California showed 40 percent of the turnout was composed of Latinos, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans.
“40 percent is about the population share of ethnic voters in the overall registered voter population in California, so what that means is that collectively ethnic voters turned out in roughly the same proportion as white non Hispanic voters, we’ve never seen that before.”
He says the 2012 election could prove to be a turning point in California politics because of the expanding ethnic electorate.
DiCamillo says most ethnic voters believe the government should do more to solve the nation’s problems rather than believing it’s doing too many things better left to individuals or businesses.
