Understanding The Voting Power Of Hispanics.

The rapidly growing Hispanic voter-base is becoming a powerful constituency in the U.S. political landscape, greatly influencing pivotal races around the country. According to the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, out of 40 million Hispanics in the U.S., 16 million Hispanic citizens are eligible to vote in the upcoming 2004 Presidential election and 8.8 million of those are projected to be registered by Election Day.

To demystify the U.S. Hispanic population and this community’s growing political influence, Univision Communications Inc. announced the release of an interactive CD-Rom providing insight into the U.S. Hispanic Voting behavior. The CD-Rom, entitled “The Hispanic Vote Tool Kit” is designed to inform politicians and media advisors about the growing Hispanic electorate and its significance. The CD-Rom is part of Univision’s campaign to aid political candidates in their pursuit of Hispanic votes and ensure that candidates and issue advertisers communicate with their Hispanic constituencies.

The Hispanic Vote Tool Kit provides detailed information about the influential Hispanic electorate and its voting trends. For instance, Hispanics are less partisan than non-Hispanics and tend to align more with a specific candidate than with a particular political party. In addition, Hispanic turnout rates have historically paralleled those of non-Hispanics as illustrated in the 2000 Presidential election during which 79% of registered Hispanics turned out to vote as compared to 86% of non-Hispanics (U.S. Census Bureau).

“As candidates increasingly recognize that Hispanics are often a critical swing vote, they are eager to reach out to this important constituency,” said Michael D. Wortsman, President, Univision Television Group. “The Hispanic Vote Tool Kit offers them the information necessary to successfully target the nation’s largest minority group by understanding and addressing the issues they care about in the most effective way. Univision is thrilled to play a role facilitating the political community’s recognition of the voting power of U.S. Hispanics.”

The CD-Rom features an integrated political calculator – a groundbreaking tool that provides political media planners with specific data for more than 40 markets and helps determine an appropriate Spanish-language media investment based on voter data and projections of the potential for Hispanic voters to swing an election outcome. The CD-Rom also offers never before seen video testimonials from experts and sample commercials illustrating how to create effective political advertising to reach the Hispanic voter. In addition, the CD-Rom includes a Hispanic voter profile that identifies the issues that are most important to Hispanics and provides the results of research that measures Spanish-language versus English-language advertising.

The Hispanic Vote Tool Kit is another step in Univision’s mission to help mobilize the Latino electorate. There are 7.2 million Hispanic voting age citizens that are not registered to vote. The release of this CD-Rom follows Univision’s partnership with the NALEO Educational Fund, the leading national organization empowering Latinos to participate in the U.S. political process. NALEO and Univision joined forces to launch “Voces del Pueblo,” an ongoing multimedia campaign that utilizes Univision’s influence in the Hispanic community to educate Hispanics about voting and encourage them to play a decisive role in upcoming elections.

“Ultimately we anticipate this CD will create an overarching effect on Hispanic participation in the U.S. political process,” said Scott Roskowski, Vice President-Sales & Marketing for Univision. “This partnership enables both Univision and NALEO to leverage both our core competencies to help stimulate voter registration and voter turnout.”