Aggressive efforts in the past year to register potential Puerto Rican voters in Central Florida has yielded an estimated 40,000 newly registered Boricuas this year, according to Hispanic outreach groups that touted the figure as unusually high for a midterm-election year.
“It’s surprising to me,” said director Betsy Franceshini of Hispanic Federation in Florida. “I’ve been here for over 30 years and… it’s the first time I’m seeing this enthusiasm.”