The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that more than 17 million Hispanics will be U.S. citizens over the age of 18 and thus eligible to vote in the November 2006 election, an increase of 7% over the 2004 election. The Hispanic share of the U.S. electorate will increase to 8.6% from 8.2% in 2004. The native born constitute the largest share of the Hispanic electorate, an estimated 12.9 million eligible voters, or 75% of the total. Naturalized citizens (the foreign-born who have acquired U.S. citizenship) are estimated to number 4.3 million, or 25% of the total. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.