Latest Swing State Polls: Obama, Romney Scramble for Florida Latino Voters as Final Debate Draws Closer

By Jean-Paul Salamanca (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Oct 22, 2012 05:18 PM EDT

Tags Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, President Obama, Presidential Debates, Latino Voters, Hispanic Vote, Hispanics, Latinos, Florida, Election 2012, Presidential Election, Presidential Debate, Debate, Obama Debate, Romney Debate, Obama vs. Romney

With the final presidential debate looming Monday night in Florida, the race for Latino voters between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the critical swing state might be closer than originally thought.

In a new poll released by the Florida International University/Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald, President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Romney are in a tight race for Florida's Hispanic populace.

According to the poll, 50.7 percent of Hispanics polled say they would vote for Obama, while 44.2 percent told pollsters that they would vote for Romney.

In a Mason-Dixon poll released earlier this month by the Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/Miami Herald, Romney led among Florida Hispanics, 46 percent to 44 percent. However, the Tampa Bay Times noted, "the margin of error is higher with that smaller group of voters."

As CNN reported, the Romney campaign has flooded the state with an array of Spanish anti-Obama advertisements since September, with Romney's campaign attacking Obama on not being more successful with immigration reform.

The numbers vary widely in comparison to recent polls by the Pew Hispanic Center, which showed that nationwide, Latino voters overwhelmingly support Obama over Romney by a margin of 3 to 1, or 69 percent to 21 percent.

"The new survey also finds a sharp rise in the share of Latinos who identify the Democratic Party as the one that has more concern for Latinos-61% say this now, up from 45% in 2011," the survey stated.

However, Ruben Navarrette of CNN reported, ultimately, the ratio of Latinos who favor one candidate over the other nationwide is not the most important figure related to the Latino vote.

Those, Navarrette pointed out, will reside in how many Hispanic votes either Obama or Romney can muster up in Florida, which has the most electoral college votes of the eight swing states with 29, as well as Colorado and Nevada-each with sizeable Latino populations.

"What we should focus on is how Obama and Romney compare in the toss-up states, specifically the three with large Latino populations: Nevada, Colorado and, yes, Florida," Navarrette wrote.