More Hispanics voted in last year's presidential election than ever before, Hispanic voter turnout actually dropped, according to a new analysis of Latino voters in the 2012 election by the Pew Research Hispanic Center.

A record 11.2 million Latinos cast votes in the election, more than ever before. But another 12.1 million Latinos who were eligible to vote in the election did not. That means that last year 48 percent of eligible Latinos cast a vote for president, down from 49.9 percent in 2008.

That's much lower than the voter turnout rates among other ethnicities: 66.6 percent for African Americans and 64.1 percent for whites.

Still, the influence Hispanics are having on the outcome of the presidential election is growing. In 2008, 7.4 percent of all votes cast in the election were cast by Latinos, a share that grew to 8.4 percent in 2012.

The fact that 71 percent of those Latino votes were cast for President Obama is the main reason immigration reform is even on the table. Republicans are scrambling to woo Hispanic voters to their causes, even if it means they need to shift to the left on a few of those issues.

The demographics aren't forgiving. More than 50,000 Latino teenagers turn 18 and become eligible to vote every month in the United States, and more become naturalized citizens.

Latinos are also a prime demographic for Democrats. If every Latino who could have voted in the last election actually did, the election wouldn't have been nearly as close.