The National Council de La Raza and other Hispanic advocacy groups are telling politicians not to blame Hispanic voters if they skip Election Day and cause their defeat at the polls.

On Wednesday, the National Council of La Raza, the biggest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, hosted a panel in Washington D.C., where the group said that both the Democratic and Republican Parties are guilty of "political malpractice," Fox News Latino reports.

The group and other groups in attendance expressed frustration over politicians' failure to tend to issues important to the Latino community, such as immigration, and are ready to see Democrats lose what would have been easy races in the Senate and House, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"There is a tendency, particularly among Democrats and other folks, that if they lose an election, they blame Latinos," Clarissa Martínez de Castro, NCLR's deputy vice president of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation, said according to FNL.

Martínez de Castro believes that no politician besides Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, has reached out to the Hispanic community.

"The reality we see often times in a lot of these places is that neither side [Democrats nor Republicans] actually was approaching our voters," she said.

Gary Segura, a co-founder of polling firm Latino Decisions and a Stanford University professor, said Latinos who decide not to vote are not irrational, but rather are making a "political decision."

"In any instance where a Latino-preferred candidate loses and that Latino community turned out in smaller numbers because of the disillusionment, Latinos did make a difference," he said according to WSJ. "... Latinos can have influence by letting people lose, just as they can have influence by helping people win."

Janet Murguía, NCLR CEO, said advocates are still encouraging Latinos to vote but are expecting less of a turnout than seen during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

"We're trying to do everything we can to get our folks to participate," she said. "We're just trying to educate our community about what are the challenges, both that are structural and candidate-made."

According to FNL, NCLR and Mi Familia Vota's joint $5 million campaign to get voters registered received 80,000 registrations in seven states with 10,000 more expected before Election Day out of its goal of 250,000.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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