News Americas, Miami, FLORIDA, Fri. Nov. 9, 2012: When it came down to it, it was Caribbean or West Indian voters in South Florida who helped deliver the Sunshine state for President Obama.
While little is heard of the Caribbean voting power compared to Hispanics, in Broward County, the West Indian population has nearly tripled in the past 10 years. West Indians comprise nearly half of the county’s 330,000 black population, according to the 2000 Census. In Miami-Dade County, people of Caribbean or largely non-Spanish speaking descent are 35 percent of the 452,000 black population. Only a small share of Latinos or 217,000, are registered to vote in Miami-Dade County. The Caribbean nationals in this area come from diverse countries such as Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, making the inadequacy of the term “Black” to describe persons in this voting bloc even more pronounced, since many of these immigrants are also of mixed race ancestries.
According to preliminary data released Thursday on the state Division of Elections website, Miami-Dade drew a voter turnout of 883,989 or roughly 67 percent of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters. President Barack Obama received 61.6 percent of the votes, compared to Republican Mitt Romney’s 37.9 percent, the election data showed. Yet no advertisements or interviews from either side targeted this bloc, which worked on the ground to harness votes for Team Obama and raise funds without any recognition.
Excluded from the results Thursday were Miami-Dade’s provisional ballots, which election workers said they planned to start reviewing Friday.
Across the state, nearly four of every ten immigrant was born in the Caribbean and call areas like Broward County, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Palm Beach Gardens, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Port Saint Lucie, West Palm Beach, Deerfield Beach, Miami Beach, Kissimmee, Fort Myers, Boca Raton and Sarasota, home.
