With an average of 66,000 additional Latinos becoming eligible to vote each month, the task of accurately polling the fastest growing population in the country has become a challenge.

"There is an art and a science to polling in Latino communities," Univision director of special projects Lourdes Torres recently told The Atlantic of a U.S. population that has now swelled to nearly 57 million and which Pew Research Center estimates represents 18 percent of the nation's overall size.

All indications point to language, technology and political participation as the biggest barriers.

According to Pew Hispanic, nearly three-quarters of Latinos reported they speak either only Spanish or a combination of Spanish and English at home. Because of that, Pew explained a direct translation of the survey questions is no longer enough to assure all respondents understand the questions they are being asked in the same way.

Cultural Differences Need Consideration

Researchers added that translating all questions must take into account such variables as cultural differences and language nuances.

Courtney Kennedy, the organization's director of survey research, stressed questions as simple as "Do you talk about the campaign with people in your family?" could not be translated literally.

"In the Spanish language, 'family' tends to include more extended relationships, whereas in the English language when you say family people generally interpret that as immediate family, people that live in your household," she said. "So you could get a systematically different answer for that type of question for Spanish speaking respondents versus English, just because that concept of family is different."

The research also found an interviewee's responses to certain questions or even their willingness to participate in any survey at all tended to vary across racial and ethnic groups. Typically speaking, Latinos were far more likely to refuse to answer specific questions or decline to participate in a survey altogether based on a general suspicion of government largely driven by fears of deportation.

As for the issue of technology, traditionally pollsters have heavily relied on landlines to conduct their research. As with other demographics, the number of Latino-headed households where only cellphones are used is on the rise, making the task of including Latino representation in any poll even more difficult.

As of December 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services reported roughly 60 percent of Latino adults lived in cellphone-only households, compared to about 45 percent of all other American adults.

"If you're not including the right percentage of cellphone-only respondents, you're not getting the right picture," said Micah Roberts, vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Public Opinion Strategies.

Voter Participation Critical

Finally, the level of a respondent's actual participation in the world of politics also appeared to be a significant factor in collecting specific information.

"Our participation tends to be lower than African Americans and whites, so sometimes it takes extra calls to find that likely voter," said Luis Miranda Jr., the managing partner at MirRam Group, a consulting company focused on minority populations. He added Americans in general, particularly young Americans, have a low voter turnout rate that is even more pronounced in the Latino community.

Miranda concluded that to gain an accurate snapshot of Latino opinions and behaviors, it is imperative pollsters invest in sample lists that include political histories, not just voter registration status.

The Latin Post previously reported Pew Hispanic estimated a record 27.3 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in the upcoming 2016 presidential election, when the issue of immigration will be important among the issues debated. Of that number, nearly half of the voters will be millennials between the ages of 18 and 35.

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