Puerto Ricans Who Fled to Florida Not Registering to Vote

James Hohmann: “The freshest data reveals that there has been no surge in new Puerto Rican voters. During the nine months before the hurricane — January through September of 2017 — there were 343,000 people who registered to vote in Florida, and 18 percent were Hispanic… During the nine months after the hurricane — from last October through the end of June — there were 326,000 new registered voters. Just 21 percent were Hispanic. That’s a pretty small uptick — and not necessarily explained by Puerto Rican registration at all.”

Said Democratic strategist Steve Schale: “The concern I’ve had for a while is that … the Maria impact was probably not going to be as significant as people initially thought. We’ve got two-and-a-half months left for voter registration. But these numbers show it’s not going to happen organically.”