Vickie Ybarra

I find over 14,000 more Hispanic surname citizens registered in Yakima County, and over 6,000 more cast their ballots, than originally reported.

Following each election, the Yakima County Elections office reports publicly on their website the counts and turnout for Spanish surname and non-Spanish surname voters. This public reporting dates back to a 2004 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the required federal reporting for the consent decree ended in 2006, the County Elections office continues to regularly report this information on their public website.

In my White Paper titled, “Hispanic Surname Registered Voters: Yakima County, Under-identification in the 2024 General Election,” I find that in 2024 Yakima County undercounted a large number of Hispanic-surname registered voters, mistakenly identifying them as non-Hispanic surname. I do not think this was an intentional undercount, rather it may simply have been a technical data processing problem at the Washington Secretary of State’s office, who the County relies on for this identification.

The White Paper details the approach I use to compare the Yakima County published counts with other methods. I find that in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, Yakima County’s reported numbers are very similar to comparison methods. Its only in 2024 that the Yakima County counts become inaccurate.

Comparing the Yakima County published numbers for the 2024 General Election, I find over 14,000 more Hispanic surname citizens were registered in Yakima County, and over 6,000 more cast their ballots, than originally reported.

Census Bureau estimates show that the number of Hispanic/Latino citizen adults in Yakima County continues to grow each year, and we should expect the number of registered Hispanic surname voters to grow as well.