On Saturday, for the first time in presidential nominating history, a state with a large Latino population, Nevada, will have its voice heard early in the contest. Latinos comprise one-fourth of the eligible voter population in the state and make up 13 percent of the registered electorate. As we have pointed out before, throughout the country Latinos comprise a growing percentage of both eligible and registered American voters, increasing their potential impact on this year’s primary and general elections. Campaigns and organizations are now seeking to make the most of this potential, reaching out to Latino voters as never before, including through new media.

In part due to demographic changes, the number of Latinos participating in the American election system is on the rise. Between 2000 and 2004 alone, the number of Latinos registered to vote grew by 23.4 percent, compared to 7.5 percent for whites and 5.8 percent for African Americans. In addition, according to a Pew study, 56 percent of Latinos use the Internet, with English-speaking or bilingual Latinos being the most prevalent users.

Online Candidate Outreach to Latinos

Democratic candidates have reached out to Latinos more actively on their campaign Web sites than Republicans, so far. Most of the Democratic candidates have some form of Spanish-language version of their campaign pages, and a couple candidates also have Web pages dedicated to Latino supporters that provide relevant news and information. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney is the only candidate to offer Latinos information in Spanish, which includes a welcome video by one of his sons speaking Spanish, in support of his father.

The typical Spanish-language campaign page includes a biography of the candidate, policy positions, and relevant press releases and news articles. The extent of the information provided in Spanish varies drastically. Some candidates, such as Bill Richardson, provide almost full translations of their English-language biographies and policy positions in Spanish; others, such as John Edwards, offer only a few sentences on each.

Obama and Richardson have English-language Web pages that target Latino voters and provide information that they consider relevant to Latinos: reproductions of articles about their candidacies in Latino publications, endorsements they’ve received by prominent Latinos and Latino publications, speeches they’ve given that address issues in terms of Latinos lives, and so on. Rudy Giuliani is the only Republican candidate to have a separate “coalition” for his Latino supporters, but it doesn’t provide any of the information described above. It is instead a short paragraph welcoming Latinos to support him and offering them the opportunity to sign up for e-mails.

Several of the Democratic candidates have also used other Web sites to reach out to Latinos. Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all have profiles on MyGrito, which is a bilingual social networking site started by a former teacher. The founder also launched TuGrito 2008, which provides links to all of the presidential candidates’ profiles on one Web page and a platform for the presidential candidates to have conversations with members. In July, there were 160,000 unique visitors to the Web site and over 3 million page views. Obama also has a profile on MiGente.com, a social networking site for Latinos. Clinton, Obama, and Richardson also invite voters to register in Spanish to receive e-mails from the campaigns.

Party Efforts to Turnout Latinos for the Primaries

Nevada, whose large Hispanic population helped win its early position on the nominating calendar, has been the center of attention for those watching Latino turnout. Aware of the attention, the Nevada Democratic Party has been actively promoting the caucus process to its Latino voters, including through the Internet. They created and maintain a Spanish-language Web site dedicated entirely to news and information about the caucus. They’ve also joined YouTube, and its site features several videos from local news stations that outline their efforts to engage the Hispanic population. And although it hasn’t attracted much attention, there is also a Facebook group for Los Democratas Boosters, the soccer team sponsored by the Nevada Democrats. The group seeks to recruit volunteers to help register voters and explain the caucus process to soccer fans at the games.

The Democratic party’s efforts have been commendable, but the Spanish-language Web site would even better if it included an online tutorial on how to participate in the caucus, as many campaigns and organizations utilized in Iowa. The only explanation they offer is through a link to a Spanish-language newspaper, El Tiempo, which details the process in a special edition article. The Nevada Republican Party has not joined the Nevada Democratic Party in any of its efforts to reach out to Latino voters, nor has it made any efforts its own.

Both parties in Florida, on the other hand, have made an effort to reach their non-English speaking supporters—though not to the extent of the Nevada Democrats and not focused exclusively on the primaries. Both have Spanish-language translations of their Web pages.

Online Organizational Outreach to Latinos

Latino voters can access consolidated election information at Univision’s Web site, Destino 2008. With information on all of the candidates, debates, key issues, primary dates, video coverage, and links to local state election Web sites that allow opportunities to register to vote, this is an impressively comprehensive site. Latinos can also find voting information—both on the processes and the candidates—outside the traditional realms of the online political world. On a pop culture-inspired Web site venture between Telemundo and Yahoo, people can access information on voter registration, candidates, and recent political news, and participate in opinion polls that present questions like, “Why do you think that Latinos are the group least likely to vote in the U.S.?”

As we have previously reported, the February 5 “Tsunami Tuesday”—when voters in over twenty states will cast their primary ballots— includes several states with large Latino populations, such as New York and California. We expect to see the battle for Latino votes and, hopefully, the online effort to bring more Latinos into the process, accelerate in the weeks to come. The only question is whether Republicans will join what has been to date a largely Democratic effort in undertaking that outreach.

Tova Andrea Wang is a Democracy Fellow and Kristen Oshyn is a Program Assistant at The Century Foundation.