The report calls these voters "New Americans." They include recent immigrants and their children, coming largely but not entirely from Hispanics and Asian countries.
Walter Ewing is senior researcher at the Immigration Policy Center. He says in terms of voting habits, New Americans have one thing in common.
"What you can assume about this voting group is that they're going to respond to candidates who seem to be positive about immigration, since that is either themselves of their parents. And that does not seem to fall along party lines."
Ewing found that between 1996 and 2008, the number of new
American voters increased more than 100 percent, and is likely to
keep growing.
But Ewing says these voters tend to be forgotten by
politicians, even though in California they accounted for more
votes than the margin by which now President Barack Obama beat John
McCain.