The new voter

Every 30 seconds an American of Hispanic origin turns 18. Better yet, each month 50,000 Hispanic voters are added to the electoral lists.

These statistics are corroborated by studies from the University of California at Los Angeles, the firm Synovate Diversity and the organization Voto Latino.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma – that is correct, the center of the Midwest – the national trend is matched: the Hispanic population grew by 88 percent in the last 10 years at the edges of the county, according to the 2010 U.S. Census figures. And to top it all: Tulsa beats the state capital: 11 percent to be exact. 

Plus, the Census indicated that nearly 3 out of every 4 new residents in Tulsa since 2000 was Hispanic.

No doubt, we have a new voter: young, multilingual, multicultural, knows about accents and belongs to a machine that changes elections. To the skeptics, just look at the 67 percent of Hispanics that supported Barack Obama for president in November 2008.

Obama and Mitt Romney should adapt their campaigns to this important, dynamic and innovative group of voters.

Ignoring Hispanics is a recipe for failure – a sort of political suicide.

It is a huge mistake not to take into account the parents of students attending Kendall-Whittier Elementary school, home in Tulsa, to a population mainly Hispanic. It would be dumb to ignore the Hispanic businesspeople based on Tulsa. To do so is to reject the new voter.

The message, the programs and the political platform need to embrace diversity. Today´s Hispanic voter weighs in and determines elections.

In conclusion, if Obama and Romney want votes, they´d better start adding the letter ñ to their vocabulary. If they don´t, they can prepare their little space in a museum, because they will become history.