SACRAMENTO, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- New U.S. citizens, many of them Hispanic immigrants, say they are excited by the U.S. presidential election and will head to the polls Election Day.
In California and other swing states such as Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida, newly minted U.S. citizens say they are planning to vote in their first presidential election Tuesday in numbers large enough to make a difference in the race, The Sacramento Bee reported Sunday.
More than 298,000 new citizens were sworn in in California this year, up 39 percent from about 182,000 last year, the newspaper said.
"Like it or not, our community is growing in California," said Anibal Luna, 38, of Sacramento, a tax business owner sworn in as a U.S. citizen last week. "As soon as I was registered to vote, I turned around and started registering other new citizens to vote."
The non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California says about 64 percent of California's likely Hispanic voters are Democrats and that, at last count, Hispanics constitute about 15 percent of the state's electorate, the Bee reported.
