The number of Latino voters who say they’re not sure which party will get their vote is twice as high as in 2018, according to the latest National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) tracking poll.

About 40% of Latinos who consider themselves independents say they remain undecided whether to vote for Democrats or Republicans in congressional and Senate elections, according to the study. The structured survey to last nine weeks is in its fourth week and was conducted by BSP Research, whose one of the co-founders conducted research for Joe Biden’s campaign.

According to NALEO Executive Director Arturo Vargas, “With just about a month away from Election Day and days before the beginning of early voting, we're seeing twice as many undecided independent Latino voters as we did in 2018 and a growing young electorate that is still considering whether to vote in November”, as published by NBC.

According to the poll, 26% of independent Latinos said they are not closely following congressional elections to decide, and 13% said they are not following the elections. Among Latino voters in general, these numbers are 21% and 6%, respectively.

Stephen Nuño, a political analyst for BSP Research, a Democratic firm that conducted the poll said that “there’s a lot of negativity out there and people get turned off by politics”. In addition, he said that the independents’ indecision and inattention are “warning signs, but we are still a month away and a lot of things are going to change. Those undecideds are going to drop dramatically”, according to the same publication.

Like other Latinos, the group considered independent and participated in the NALEO tracking survey ranked the economy as the main issue they want Congress and the president to prioritize, with 48% making this mention. Another important theme, then, was abortion and women's reproductive rights, with 26%, followed by the reduction in the cost of health care, pointed out by 25% of this population.

“The poll found that the majority, 58%, of Latino independents said they had not been contacted by any campaign, political party or organization asking them to vote”.

Other findings from the survey show that Latinas were more likely to choose reproductive rights and abortion as an issue that the president and Congress need to address, 33%, compared to Latinos (23%). And a larger share of Latinos (men) said they were better off financially than two years ago, 36% to 26%.

“Even though a larger share of Latino men is saying they are better off, they are more supportive of Republicans than Latinas are, with 35% of Latinos planning to vote for or leaning toward the Republican candidates compared to 30% of Latinas. For Democrats, 52% of Latino men are supporting them or leaning in their direction and 55% of Latinas”, according to the publication.

NALEO’s poll tracking Latino registered voters surveyed 1,132 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.