If statistics are right, an increase in Hispanic voters in early and absentee 2016 US Presidential Election ballots could be an advantage to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Latino citizens, the biggest minority group in the US, are described as a "sleeping giant", the least likely to vote, according to past election data.
During the 2012 presidential election, 48 per cent of Hispanic citizens voted compared to white citizens at 62 percent and black citizens at 66 per cent.
But early and absentee voting trends in the states of Florida and Nevada suggest Latino votes will rise and in favour of Mrs Clinton.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton steps on stage to debate Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Across the nation, Latino voters are leaning towards Clinton, as indicated by a Washington Post/Univision poll released last week which showed 67 per cent of Hispanics preferred Clinton to Republican candidate Trump at just 19 per cent.
Voting in Nevada
But on Friday in Clark County in the state of Nevada alone, Latino voters helped Mrs Clinton lead in an early ballot.
Registered Democrats have now returned over 72,000 more ballots than registered Republicans in the county.
Elsewhere in the state, Democrats have cast around 46,000 more ballots than Republicans.
It prompted Trump to suggest there was corruption at "certain key Democratic polling locations in Clark County".
"It's a rigged system. It's a rigged system. And we're going to beat it," he said.
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Voting in Florida
In Florida, Latinos have cast about 14 per cent of 5.7 million early and absentee ballots, far ahead of the amount in 2012.
In fact, last Wednesday, Hispanic early voting had already outdone Hispanic early voting in 2012 by 170,000 ballots - many of whom have voted for the first time, analysis by Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale shows.
"Because Hispanic is a self-identifying marker, studies have found that the real Hispanic vote is larger than the registration. So while Hispanics might make up 14.2 per cent of the voters who have voted so far, in reality, the number is larger," he wrote.
In Florida, Hispanics favoured Clinton over Trump (60 per cent to 30 per cent) and in Nevada, 72 per cent voted for Clinton with 19 per cent to Trump, according to a poll by the Tarrance Group and Bendixen and Amandi.
Trump's rapport with Hispanics
With Donald Trump known for regularly offending the Latino community, the surge in Hispanic pre-voting could put Ms Clinton in good stead for November 8 Election Day.
Dr John Hart, a US election expert from the Australian National University, says Nevada and Florida should be easy states for Trump to win, he added, but the notable sizes of their Hispanic communities work against him.
"Some of [Trump's] outrageous positions, like wanting to build a wall to keep the Latinos out, – that’s turned off the Latinos," Dr Hart told SBS.
"And that's pretty dumb because they are now the biggest minority in the United States and he needed them."
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With Reuters
