Record Hispanic vote in 2010 elections

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Hispanic voters comprised a record 7 percent of ballots cast in the 2010 congressional elections, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The figure was the highest percentage of participation by Hispanics for a non-presidential election since the bureau began collecting such data in 1974. Hispanics made up 6 percent of the electorate in 2006.

African-American participation also increased from 11 percent in 2006 to 12 percent in 2010, matching the record high in 1998.

The full data are available in the Census Bureau's "Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2010" report.

"These statistics show that the nation's electorate is becoming increasingly diverse," said Tiffany Julian, of the Census Bureau's Education and Social Stratification Branch. "The electorate looks much different than when we first started collecting these data 37 years ago."

Asian-American participation remained constant at just over 2 percent, while the non-Hispanic white vote fell from 80.4 percent in 2006 to 77.5 percent in 2010, the bureau said.

Maine and Washington state had the highest voter turnout rates at more than 55 percent, while Texas was last at less than 40 percent.