The Houston Chronicle reported last week that the number of Hispanic votes received by Bush in the November 2 election increased to about 44 percent. 

Polls showed that when voters decide which presidential candidate to vote for, record numbers favored Bush when deciding on terms of the candidate’s religious beliefs, morals and values and national security strategy.  It was only when one’s vote was decided on economic grounds that the Hispanic vote fell towards Kerry, The Washington Post reported on November 8.

Furthermore, exit polls looked even more favorable among Hispanic voters in some states where percentages jumped even higher than the national percentages.  In Texas, the number of Hispanics voting for the republican candidate rose from 16 percent to 59 percent of Hispanics in the state.  Other states that voted Republican were Florida and New Mexico, states in which large Hispanic populations defeated the traditional Democrat vote with the close margin of around 55 percent votes for Bush. 

However, critics of the impressive new numbers say that exit poll numbers are calculated to make them appear more extraordinary than they actually are.  A Latino organization, the Willie C. Velázquez Institute, claims that media polling designed to survey the general public gives inaccurate results, because most Hispanics live in urban areas compared to the rural and suburban areas that are included in the survey.  The organization further reported that these polls accounted for around 10 million Hispanic voters while only 7 million are registered voters.