New Study Reveals High JA Voter Turnout
By ALEX ISAO HERBACH
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Saturday, June 2, 2007

APALC compiles data on Asian American voting patterns in 2006 election.

The study scanned every general election ballot for people of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cam­bodian, Filipino, and Indian descent. If their name matched an expansive name list (compiled from 20 years of public records), a profile was taken and their demographics recorded.

Sponsors of the study hope that these communities will take the findings to heart, as well as the polling station.

“By the time we vote on our next presi­dent, Asian Americans could make up one in 10 voters in Los Angeles County,” said Dan Ichinose, director of the Demographic Research Project. “This [study] should be a wake up call to elected officials that Asians Americans are voting and will hold them accountable at the ballot box.”

Others added their desire to see not only community members and citizens take action, but also to see politicians take heed at the report’s findings.

“The political campaigns need to start targeting Asian American voters,” said Eugene Lee, director of the Voting Rights Project. “Asian American voting power has been growing and is becom­ing a force to be reckoned with.”

One arena where the exponential growth and newfound political power of APA votership will manifest itself will be immigration. According to the study, Asian Americans greatly support com­prehensive immigration policy reform, typically an issue that has marginalized the community.

There is mainstream support by APA’s for legalization and a steady opposition to any additional criminal­ization of undocumented immigrants. A vast majority (84 percent) calls for a reduction in the backlog of immigrants waiting to enter the United States.

The backlog is­sue is especially important to many APA communi­ties. One of the speakers Monday said it takes an av­erage of 20 years for a Filipino to clear the red tape in order for a fam­ily member to join them in the states. And for a community that represents eight percent of the immigrant popula­tion, other speakers were quick to stress the significance of this issue.

“Sixty-three percent of Asian Ameri­cans nationwide were born outside of the United States,” said Ichinose. “Millions in our communities will be affected by changes to our immigration system. Clearly, Asian Americans have an im­portant stake in the debate.”

With such a large number of regis­tered voters from non English-speak­ing countries, language is a key ele­ment surrounding the debate. Federal and state law requires assistance for foreign-born voters.

But even with such laws in place, some suggested Monday that it is not enough.

“In the last election, we found that 93 percent of the poll sites monitored in Los Angeles County failed to provide translated provisional ballots,” said leg­islative advocate Vivian Huang of Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. “Without language assistance, our Asian-citizens are shut out of this most fundamental right of citizenship. That is exactly what’s happening right now.”

Huang continued by describing ex­amples of Asian Americans being dis­enfranchised due to a lack of supplies, a lack of preparedness, or simply general ignorance. One poll worker in Los An­geles maneuvered around the language barrier presented by two elderly Asian women by speaking English very slowly and very loudly.

To improve upon these conditions, many speakers supported Assemblymem­ber Mike Eng’s Assembly Bill 614, which would involve the California Secretary of State’s Office in monitoring language as­sistance in the state’s polling places.

In spite of all the obstacles that re­main in front of Asian American voters, the event’s speakers remained optimistic about the possibilities of this new and powerful interest.

“The Asian American community has yet to realize its full potential; citizen­ship, voter registration and ‘get out the vote’ campaigns will be critical if Asian Americans are to fully capitalize politi­cally on their dramatic growth.”

APALC will sponsor another exit poll and voting analysis following the 2008 presidential election. To see the study’s findings in full, contact Dan Ichinose at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center at (213) 977-7500.