Section 4:Discussion of Findings
|
Moreover, this study should also serve as the impetus to formulate and
support mechanisms that educate and train Dominican-Americans and other
Latino communities on how the American political system functions and how
one can use the American polity to address the needs of these often neglected communities.
|
While Illinois can look to improve upon having the highest rate of Dominican-American
adult citizens at 47 percent, we cannot forget the stark need of our Dominican community in
Massachusetts which has only a 24 percent Dominican-American adult citizen population, the
lowest percentage in the whole country (see Appendix 4, for more information on adult citizenship rates).
|
To summarize, Table 4 below lists the Dominican specific population data gathered in the report
for the top 25 congressional districts, in terms of voting power within district Latinos.
|
Table 4: Latino Voting Power of Dominicans in the Top 25 Congressional Districts
No. |
District |
% Dominicans Voters per Latinos |
Dominican population |
Dominican Citizens |
Dominican Adult Citizens |
1 |
NY –15 |
28.58 |
123,807 |
69,679 |
40,794 |
2 |
RI- 2 |
22.42 |
14,371 |
7,941 |
4,086 |
3 |
NY – 16 |
17.73 |
100,801 |
56,731 |
33,214 |
4 |
MA - 6 |
17.16 |
8,805 |
4,466 |
2,127 |
5 |
MA – 5 |
14.85 |
20,046 |
10,167 |
4,843 |
6 |
NY – 5 |
12.38 |
26,322 |
14,814 |
8,673 |
7 |
NY – 12 |
12.31 |
54,087 |
30,440 |
17,822 |
8 |
NY – 17 |
12.03 |
22,247 |
12,521 |
7,330 |
9 |
NJ – 8 |
11.46 |
28,006 |
14,737 |
8,497 |
10 |
NY – 10 |
9.81 |
15,266 |
8,592 |
5,030 |
11 |
NY – 6 |
8.78 |
13,389 |
7,535 |
4,412 |
12 |
NJ – 13 |
7.95 |
35,818 |
18,847 |
10,867 |
13 |
NY – 7 |
7.53 |
26,940 |
15,162 |
8,877 |
14 |
NJ – 9 |
7.35 |
13,105 |
6,896 |
3,976 |
15 |
NY – 18 |
7.34 |
10,768 |
6,060 |
3,548 |
16 |
RI – 1 |
7.23 |
3,523 |
1,947 |
1,002 |
17 |
FL – 17 |
7.22 |
10,461 |
6,567 |
4,557 |
18 |
NY – 9 |
7.14 |
8,809 |
4,958 |
2,903 |
19 |
NY – 11 |
7.11 |
7,812 |
4,397 |
2,574 |
20 |
NY – 4 |
6.74 |
8,331 |
4,689 |
2,745 |
21 |
MA – 9 |
6.53 |
3,492 |
1,771 |
844 |
22 |
MA – 8 |
6.16 |
11,336 |
5,750 |
2,739 |
23 |
NY – 2 |
5.73 |
7,196 |
4,050 |
2,371 |
24 |
NJ – 10 |
5.62 |
7,992 |
4,205 |
2,425 |
25 |
NY – 14 |
5.11 |
6,495 |
3,655 |
2,140 |
Source: US Census Bureau 2000; 108th Congressional Districts (100 Percent)
|
One must be mindful that this report is "what could be," if Dominicans and other
Latinos were registered to vote. We still lack the means to estimate with much greater
accuracy the number of registered voters of Dominican descent and their percentage turnout
at the polls. Section 5 has a more in depth discussion about the challenges faced in estimating
the number of US Dominican registered voters in New Jersey.
|
An interesting point can be extracted from the data found, if the basic assumptions hold.
Namely, that while Dominicans may be a small percentage of the total voting population they
do have a high percentage of potential voters with in the Latino voting cohort.
|
This data can also be used at the district level to close the gap between the percentage of
US Dominican adult citizens and the estimated percentage of Dominican registered voters out
of the Latino population.
|
|
