No Signs of Pro-Immigrant Voter Boom

Immigration-rights demonstrators march to the Arizona state Capitol, April 10, 2006, in Phoenix. These immigration protests that sent hundreds of thousands of people into the nation's streets this spring promised to leave behind a potent political legacy _ a surge of new Hispanic voters. But an Associated Press review of registration figures from major rally cities suggests there has been no surge in registrations, at least not yet.(AP Photo/Matt York, File) (Matt York - AP)

What's more, no galvanizing leader of the immigrant-rights movement has emerged and the largest pool of potential voters _ young people _ tend to be the hardest to reach.

"It's a hard sell," said Avelino Andazola, a field organizer with the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project who rounded up only a dozen new registrations at a spring immigration rally attended by several thousand people in southern Los Angeles County.

For this story, the AP reviewed new registration numbers in metropolitan areas over several years. The areas included Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.; Chicago; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Dallas and Houston; Atlanta; Denver; and Jacksonville and St. Petersburg, Fla. The time frames included both January-through-July periods dating to 2004, as well as periods before statewide elections, when registration efforts are most intense.

The data provide a wide-angle look at new registrations, but do have limitations. Any significant shift in registrations overall would stand out, but voters are not specifically identified by race or ethnicity.

Gains in new registrations were highest in 2004, when political parties spent lavishly to enroll new voters ahead of the presidential election.

New voter registrations increased in virtually every city between 2005 and 2006 _ but that would be expected because of congressional primaries and elections. The 2006 numbers were below the 2004 numbers in every city, often significantly.

In Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, new registrations through July tallied 55,657 _ an increase of 16 percent over 2005 but well below the 71,402 from 2004.

And in rare cases, registrations declined. New registrations in San Francisco were significantly lower in the 100 days before this year's June 6 primary than over the same period before a statewide special election in November 2005.

In Chicago and surrounding Cook County, registrations in the first seven months this year jumped about a third over 2005, but were far below the same period in 2004.

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Associated Press Writers Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta, Nathaniel Hernandez in Chicago, Anabelle Garay in Dallas, Steve Paulson in Denver, Juan Lozano in Houston, Phil Davis in Tampa, Fla., and Arthur H. Rotstein in Tucson, Ariz., contributed to this story.