Puerto Rico Race Tight
The race to become Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress is nearly statistically tied, according to a poll released Oct. 14 by the island daily El Nuevo Día.

Its survey of likely Nov. 2 voters for Resident Commissioner found businessman Luis Fortuño, of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, ahead of island Senator Roberto Prats, of the pro-status quo Popular Democratic Party, by 44% to 39%.

The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Twelve percent of the voters remained undecided.

Unions File Florida Voting Suit
Several major labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, filed Oct. 13 a lawsuit against the Florida Secretary of State and five county election supervisors, alleging discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and other voters of color.

The suit charges election officials in several counties, including the state's two largest - Miami-Dade and Broward - with unjustly rejected more than 10,000 voter registration applications for "minor" errors, such as a failure to check off some information, including U.S. citizenship.

"These officials have adopted unduly restrictive registration practices and procedures that violate federal election laws,'' reads the suit, which demands that the state accept the applications.

State election officials say they are only following state and federal laws.

Latino Incumbents Unopposed
Several Hispanic members of Congress are running for re-election Nov. 2 without an opponent

They include one Republican, Mario Díaz-Balart (Fla.) and four Democrats: Ed Pastor and Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Grace Napolitano (Calif.) and Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.).

Others have minimal opposition. Among them is José Serrano (D-N.Y.), whose opponent represents the Socialist Workers Party.

The latest Associated Press poll found that in Illinois, Democratic candidate John Kerry leads President Bush 49%-40% overall, with 11% undecided.

Hispanics represent 12.3% of the state's population.