Jeb Bush once said he was Hispanic on voter registration form

Photo: David Goldman/AP

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush once indicated he was Hispanic on a voter registration form in that state, but the likely 2016 Republican presidential contender says it was unintentional.

In a 2009 voter-registration application obtained by The New York Times from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, Bush marked a circle next to “Hispanic” in the field labeled “race/ethnicity.” The next circle, “White, not Hispanic,” was not checked.

“It’s unclear where the paperwork error was made,” replied a Bush representative in an email to Yahoo News. “The governor’s family certainly got a good laugh out of it. He is not Hispanic.”

The 62-year-old brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush was born in Midland, Texas.

Jeb Bush’s 2009 Florida voter registration form. (New York Times/Miami-Dade County Elections Department)

But Bush, who served as Florida’s governor from 1999 to 2007, has deep ties to the Hispanic community.

He speaks fluent Spanish. His wife, Columba Bush, was born in Mexico. He lived in Venezuela when he was in his 20s. He enjoyed widespread support from Hispanics during his two terms as governor. (In 1998, one exit poll showed Bush got 61 percent of the Hispanic vote.)

And Bush has been labeled a “Hispanic candidate” by several Spanish-language media outlets in recent months, in part, for his comments on immigration.

“Someone who comes to our country because they couldn’t come legally, they come to our country because their families,” Bush said last year during an event marking the 25th anniversary of his father’s presidency. “[They were] worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love.”