Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

They only totaled nine in all, but they sat attentive as Eugene Lee, staff attorney in the Voting Rights Project at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, explained issues regarding the upcoming election.

They represent the faces of the Asian American community in the United States, a population that totals 12.5 million or 4.4 percent, according to a 2002 U.S. Census report. Like many Americans, they have concerns and issues that they can rattle off like a shopping list: the Iraq War, economy, health care, and immigration.

Yet, they are a group that many say has been widely ignored in the election, which is why Lee was present at the Los Angeles-based Pilipino Workers’ Center this past week to talk about issues involving the 2008 campaign. With California’s primary looming on Feb. 5th, Lee was invited by the center’s staff to discuss some of the important facts about voting and encourage Asian Americans to cast their ballots.

“We don’t really know so much about the elections,” said Strela Cervas, Case Manager at PWC.

Cervas was on hand to watch Lee discuss issues involving the election, explain to his listeners what the different statewide measures meant, clarify the positions that each of the presidential candidates held, as well as mobilize voters to cast their ballots.

“[Asian Americans] have a lot of voting power as a community,” said Lee. “We want to encourage people who can vote to vote.”

But even though Asian Americans—a group that consists of several different minorities—make up a substantial amount of the population, much more attention has been paid to Hispanic and African American voters in the election.

According to an article posted on Politico.com, Asian Americans have been largely ignored in the election campaign, even though they are upwardly mobile and vote in higher proportions than Hispanics.

“The Asian Pacific American population is the fastest-growing minority population, and it is an important electoral presence in a number of states,” write James G. Gimpel and Wendy K. Tam Cho.

Even more, the article points out that a 2006 national exit poll reveals that Asian Americans are more divided in party identification than Latinos, yet presidential candidates rarely talk candidly about the issues that are of specific concern to Asian Americans, like immigration.

According to Lee, assessing the Democratic presdiential candidates’ stances on immigration is difficult because it is not an issue they are really talking about.

“I know a lot of folks who have fought for immigrant rights. We want the candidates to talk about it more, so it’s a shame that they’re not,” said Lee. “I think part of that is because they may feel it’s a political minefield.”

But ignoring issues important to the Asian American community could mean candidates are losing out on a potentially huge voting group, especially in the West, where 49 percent of Asians live, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

“We’ve found that Asian Americans are an increasing proportion of the electorate in Southern California and L.A. County,” said Dan Ichinose, Director of the Demographic Research Project at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

According to Ichinose, statistics from a 2006 APALC report he helped to conduct found that of the 11% of Asian American registered to vote in L.A. County during the 2006 election, 9% cast their vote. Ichinose believes those numbers will only increase in the upcoming election.

“Overall we’re seeing an increase in Asian Americans as a proportion of the electorate in Southern California,” said Ichinose.

So why haven’t candidates been paying more attention to the Asian American population, and why aren’t Asian Americans voting more?

One reason may be language. Unlike other minority groups, Asian Americans may identify more with their unique, diverse nationalities than with other Asians. And unlike Hispanics, there is no single language unifying them. Korean Americans speak Korean, Filipino Americans speak Tagalog or English, and other Asian American minorities typically speak their own mother tongue. They are as different as night and day, and not all candidates are willing to spend the money it would take to outreach to the Asian American subgroups.

“It’s difficult for the political parties to do in-language outreach to Asian American voters because they have to do more of it,” said Lee. “It’s feasible, if they look hard enough, they can find volunteers who can speak each language. It’s easier than they think it is.”

One way to get Asian Americans to vote more may be through language assistance. Federal and state laws require that voters have written or language assistance when casting their vote, a point that Ichinose underscores. According to the Language Minority Provisions of the Voting Rights Act, “voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials of information relating to the electoral process, including ballots… shall [be provided] in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language.”

APALC’s 2006 report reveals that having written or language assistance while voting is important to many Asian Americans.

“That assistance is needed,” said Ichinose. “Asian Americans disproportionately use that assistance.”

To make sure that language assistance will be provided in the upcoming election and primary, APALC will conduct poll monitoring at more than 100 sites across Los Angeles and Orange County.

“We’ve been doing this for 15 years and we’ve seen improvements in the way L.A. and Orange County provide language assistance, but what we want to make sure is that all poll sites are doing what they need to,” said Lee. “The issue is that election officials do what they can, they improve their trainings, but not all poll workers attend the trainings, not all poll workers tune in during the trainings and pay attention, and some poll workers don’t care.”

While Lee acknowledges that some campaigns, such as those of Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have directors for Asian American voter outreach—positions that may not have existed as recently as 10 years ago—he believes that more can be done.

“For first generation Asian Americans, many do get their news through ethnic media and so I think to reach those folks it’s important to take advantage of ethnic media,” said Lee. “Especially in places like California, where there’s a lot of ethnic media outlets, I think the candidates could do a better job.”

Another reason why Asian Americans may not participate in politics more is because of a history of disenfranchisement. A report from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund shows that Asians may be turned off from civic participation because of a long history of discrimination in the United States, where past laws denied them of their right to vote and immigrate to America.

Today, immigration remains an important issue to several Asians, but may also be a barrier to voting. The legacy of discrimination may still leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many Asian Americans, the report argues.

More recently, a Reuters article shows that racism still affects the ability of Asian American to vote. According the article, a civil rights group said, “Asian American voters fear the discrimination some faced at polling stations in 2006 could resurface as they cast ballots in November’s presidential election.”

In the article, Margaret Fung, AALDEF’s executive director, said “that on polling day in 2006 there were many examples of ‘racist and intimidatory’ remarks to Asian Americans such as: “‘How come you don’t speak English?’, ‘Why don’t you go back to your home country?’ and ‘You’re turning this country into a dump.”‘

AALDEF registered 200 complaints while monitoring 172 polling sites and surveying 4,700 Asian American voters in nine states, the article states.

“Some of the issues are constant: Identity checks, inability to get language assistance, voting discrimination,” said Glenn Magpan, staff attorney for AALDEF.

While Magpan acknowledged that Asian Americans will probably continue to face the same issues, he believes that most of the polling sites aware of AALDEF’s report are interested in fixing the problems that may hinder voters.

But because of the language and discrimination issues involved in voting, some Asian Americans may feel so ignored by the candidates that they become disillusioned.

“Asian Americans don’t feel like the parties have really reached out to them so the voters may say ‘I want to vote, but I don’t feel strongly one way or another,’” said Lee.

To encourage voting on Super Tuesday, a group of Asian American celebrities and activists came together last Friday to speak their minds.

“I see how little representation and influence Asian Americans hold in every segment of our society,” said Yul Kwon, winner of the racially-charged season of Survivor: Cook Islands. “In this country, Asian Americans are seen as the invisible minority.”

Kwon expressed frustration at the lack of attention Asian Americans received by the media and encouraged Asian voters to make their voices heard in the Super Tuesday primaries.

“Asian Americans can become swing voters and play a big role,” said Kwon. “We have the numbers and the power to become a major force in our community.”

In an effort to outreach to the Asian American population in California, both Democratic presidential hopefuls held events this past weekend in the Golden State. Asian American volunteers for Sen. Obama organized phonebanking parties on Saturday and Sen. Clinton held a rally and press conference featuring several Asian American Pacific Islander leaders the same day.

- Daryl Paranada, University of Southern California News21