Presidential races are the best time for the United States to relegate minorities into statistics that make it easier to analyze the attitudes of people. But the group that seems to stray further away from the Democratic Party, at least as a reliable bloc compared to other minorities, is the Hispanic/Latine vote. However, that trend seems more severe than it actually is because exit polls and other statistics, such as the decennial census report, group Latine people of all backgrounds into Hispanic, Latino or both as a package deal.

Before recent considerations to revise racial categories by the Office of Management and Budget in March, Hispanic/Latino was not considered a racial category. Although keeping Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category allowed people who identify as Afro-Latino or white-Latino to be more specific, it also denied those who identify as simply Latine, forcing them into Caucasian, Native American or other racial categories.

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Until those revisions take effect, a person whose ancestors descend from Latin America’s indigenous populations and someone of Caucasian descent from a Spanish-speaking country may be grouped in the same exit poll yet have different races checked off on a census report. No amount of pointless loopholes and technicalities could make that sound reasonable.

Hispanic/Latino as an ethnicity dates back to changes made in 1976, when Congress required the government to expand upon economic and social statistics. At the time, the oddly defined term covered those whose ancestors came from Spanish-speaking countries. The idea that a language could be the differentiating trait of a person’s race or ethnicity makes no sense, and even less so when no other race in the U.S. is defined by a language.

Using Spanish as a defining characteristic also excludes people whose families are from Portuguese-speaking countries like Brazil, who, while deserving of their own classification like other Latines, often consider themselves Hispanic or Latine. Although Brazilians would be considered Latino and not Hispanic since Brazil is in Latin America, they are neither Hispanic nor Latino in the U.S.

The lack of exit polling or transparency on which Hispanic/Latine groups are polled has the potential to misrepresent certain groups’ voting patterns. For example, the political views of someone whose family fled Venezuela due to socialism may vary from other Central and South Americans who immigrated to the U.S. for more opportunities.

With a broader frame of reference, the reason why the Democratic Party’s call for a Great Society does not hit hard enough among Hispanic/Latine voters is simple: Latines themselves experience varying levels of discrimination. More than other minority voting blocs, Hispanic and Latine people vary greatly in background, with each country of origin having unique histories related to racism, capitalism, socialism, imperialism and every other -ism. It’s largely a strength, but those differences can backfire when those who are darker skinned face more discrimination than those who are lighter skinned.

One of the bigger surprises during the 2020 race was the momentum Trump gained among Hispanic/Latine voters, more so than when he won in 2016. However, simply looking at exit polls would be missing the nuance at play, especially when considering the Trump campaign focused on groups such as Cuban Americans in Florida and other factors that contributed to his newfound support from Latine people.

While there are other, more institutional, issues plaguing the U.S. election system, these classifications could create harmful narratives that add to the never-ending list of misunderstandings that Hispanic/Latine people have to bear. Suddenly, the Americans who Trump disparaged as criminals illegally crossing the border are seen as his diehard supporters.

The fact that the discussion around Hispanic/Latine voters is now dominated by which party they will vote for is an improvement from decades past, when the greater concern was whether or not they could vote at all. In 2024, Latine voters are expected to make up 14.7% of eligible voters in the U.S. That welcomed increase is thanks to Latine groups uplifting eligible voters rather than the system lending a helping hand.

The only benefit that could come out of this unrepresentative grouping system is the push for those of Hispanic/Latine descent to unify. More specific classifications may cause fracturing within Hispanic/Latine groups and, at worst, create zero-sum games in politics, not to mention the potential targeting of people. But, in doing so, the thoughts and feelings of millions of Americans are less likely to be contorted for a political party’s gain.