By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. Nov. 9, 2018: Florida’s much anticipated gubernatorial race ended in a loss for Democrats Tuesday night, Nov. 6th, by just about 80,000 votes much to the angst of many Caribbean immigrants stateside, in the US Diaspora nationally and even in the Caribbean region. But how exactly did Caribbean immigrant voters in South Florida help or hurt Andrew Gillum’s chances of bringing home a win?
While statistical data is not tabulated for Caribbean American voters, News Americas, using zip codes where black Caribbean immigrants predominate in Miami-Dade and Broward County and comparing them to results by Precincts that cover those areas, found the following Top Five Data Pointers Of Interest:
1: In the 10 Lauderhill City precincts, where an estimated 25 percent of the city’s population was born in the Caribbean and 20 percent in Jamaica alone, Gillum secured over 22,000 votes, winning all the Precincts there by huge margins compared to Republican challenger Ron DeSantis. There are 18,992 black registered voters among the 10 Precincts according to the Broward County Elections Commission.
2: Gillum also won by a wide margin in Precincts in Miramar and Pembroke Pines, two cities where people of West Indian ancestry make up 24 and 20 percent of the total population of each city. In three precincts in Miramar, he secured 3,187 votes while in two precincts in Pembroke Pines, he secured 2,762 votes. That’s compared to 454 and 474, respectively for DeSantis. There are 3,639 registered black voters in the three precincts alone in Miramar, meaning 452 did not vote while there are 876 black registered voters in the two Pembroke Pines precincts analyzed.
3: In the Hollywood, FL zip code of 33025, where an estimated 10,000 plus West Indians live in Broward County, 1,399 votes were cast for Andrew Gillum, giving him a 98 percent win in that precinct compared to just over 1 percent for the Governor Elect, Ron DeSantis. However, there are 3,102 registered black voters who call this Precinct home, according to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections data.
4: In the Fort Lauderdale zip codes of 33313, 33311 and 33319, home to over 40,000 plus West Indians, over 4,400 votes were cast for Gillum compared to 966 for DeSantis. The combined total of registered black voters in these areas total 6,944.
5: In the Miami, Florida zip code of 33162, where over 15,000 West Indian immigrants call home, the Precinct reported just 1,209 black votes.
OVERALL
Meanwhile, overall, in Broward County and Miami-Dade, counties with a large percentage of Caribbean and immigrant voters, Gillum won over DeSantis with 60 percent of the vote in Miami-Dade and 67 percent in Broward County against DeSantis.
But overall, turnout in Miami-Dade was put at around just 55 percent while Broward’s turnout was roughly only 54 percent.
