Yahoo! News AFP Features Top Story - Asian Americans fight language barrier in US elections
P. Parameswaran | Friday, October 29, 2004
WASHINGTON (AFP) - When Chungin Chung, an Asian American community leader, was invited to meet US vice-presidential candidate Senator John Edwards ahead of the November 2 election, she was excited but politely declined.
"I just cannot do that," said the president of the Korean American Citizens League in the northwestern state of Oregon, recalling a recent invitation by Democratic party officials to join a meeting with Edwards at Portland airport.
"Firstly, I am non-partisan and secondly, I would rather spend my time educating and serving voters on issues at stake in this presidential election," said Chung, who immigrated to Portland in 1981 and has since become a naturalized US citizen.
While appreciating the invitation by Edwards aides, she said she was disappointed that the Democratic party as well as its rival the Republican party had never offered any programs that could help her community in the area.
"The least they could have done is help us educate the Asian American voters on what the issues are in the elections," said Chung, who is trained in public administration.
This is a critical issue, she said, because many of the voters in the community were first generation immigrants not conversant in English.
"Indeed, the biggest problem facing Asian Americans in this election is the language barrier," said Chung, who led her group in the first widely distributed Korean translation of the Oregon ballot.
Aside from choosing their president, Americans would also have to pick 435 members of the House of Representatives, a third of the 100-member Senate and governors of 11 states and many local officers as well.
In 37 states, they will also have to choose on 157 diverse issues on the ballot, including measures on homosexual marriage, forest management, health care, taxation and the legalization of marijuana.
Some of the issues are complex. Worse still, questions on the ballots may not be in any of the 20-odd languages of the six million Asian Americans eligible to vote in this election.
Under US law, local election officials should provide bilingual voter registration applications, ballots and language assistance when a certain percentage of the population of their jurisdiction is composed of a language minority group.
Although 16 counties in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas and Washington state are covered by the language assistance law, there are substantial populations in these states still requiring language assistance, community leaders said.
"The crucial effort to educate our voters is borne on the back of volunteers," lamented Janelle Hu, national director of APIAVote, a coalition of groups promoting public policy and the electoral process among Asian Americans.
As about two-thirds of the Asian American population is foreign born, language assistance remains an important tool in increasing political participation, she said.
Hu added that political parties "would be well served to pay more attention to this issue," especially since one third of Asian American voters in this election will be first timers.
APIAVote has set up a national hotline to provide telephone assistance in 20 Asian languages during the elections, including Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Toisanese), Korean , Tagalog, Hindi and Punjabi.
Additionally, APIAVote partnered with Election Protection, a coalition of civil rights organizations, to translate into Asian languages voting materials in seven states.
"There are some counties which haven't trained their poll workers and on election day, we have seen how some of the these translated ballots and materials that are mandated by law to be provided are not even available," Hu said.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, among legal groups catering to the community, said it would conduct election monitoring and exit polling to uncover any cases of discrimination against Asians.
Glenn Magpantay, the Fund's attorney, said that in the 2000 elections, "interpreter shortages led to Asian voters being turned away, with reported incidents in California and New York.
"There was no one to assist them, and poll workers were rude, hostile, and made racist remarks about Asian American voters and their English proficiency," he said.
The Fund has mobilized 600 attorneys, law students, and volunteers covering "precincts with a history of voter intimidation and racist remarks made by elected officials against members of the community," Magpantay said.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER - Sky-high interest in election in ethnic communities
John Iwasaki | Thursday, October 28, 2004
“More than 12,000 mailings have been sent to registered voters with Asian/Pacific Islander surnames by local members of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote 2004, a coalition of non-profit groups that is focusing on Washington and eight other states.
The coalition just completed its phone bank campaign, getting commitments to vote from 889 registered voters, said Stephen Nadal, Washington coordinator of APIAVote 2004. The coalition left messages for another 800 or so voters and will go door-to-door in eight south Seattle precincts Saturday and Monday.”
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS - Asian-American groups flexing political muscle
ESTHER WU | Thursday, October 27, 2004
With the presidential elections five days away, many Asian-Americans across this country have been discussing the political process.
According to the latest U.S. census figures, Asian-Americans represent one of the fast-growing segments of the population. It stands to reason, then, that as more and more immigrants become eligible to vote, Asian-American voters are becoming an important part of the political process in this country.
But we haven't gotten to this point without help.
Asian-Americans are learning to flex their political muscle. Efforts include local grassroots organizations in North Texas such as the Voice of Asian American Association, which focuses on voter registration, and the Asian American Citizens Council, which is working to get more minorities appointed to boards and elected to public office, as well as 80-20, a national nonpartisan political organization whose goal is to create an Asian voting bloc in presidential races.
APIAVOTE 2004, a national coalition of nonpartisan nonprofit organizations that encourages civic participation and promotes a better understanding of public policy and the electoral process among Americans of Asian and Pacific islander descent, has also been working to guide constituents through the political process.
According to Janelle Hu, APIAVOTE national campaign coordinator, "With less than a week before the election, Asian/Pacific islander Americans are tirelessly mobilizing to ensure eligible voters are educated on important issues affecting the community and get out to the polls Nov. 2. An unprecedented number of them have already cast their ballots via early and absentee voting. Millions more will race to the polls ... including legions of newly registered APIA voters."
Election hotline
APIAVOTE is working with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund to staff an election hotline to answer questions and to conduct election monitoring and exit polling in Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. Volunteers will be checking for Asian-language ballots, interpreters and other bilingual voting materials required under section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 203 requires language assistance when a minority group exceeds 10,000 or 5 percent of voting-age citizens among the local population.
The passage of the Help America Vote Act has also created many new procedural issues, including a requirement that first-time voters present a form of photo identification at the polls when voting. Also under this new act, provisional ballots must be made available to voters who believe they are registered but are not listed on the voter registration books due to a processing error. In the past, many of these voters were simply turned away and not allowed to vote.
Through community partners and allies, according to Ms. Hu, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium will also monitor elections and conduct exit polls in California, Texas and Washington.
Asian-Americans wishing to file complaints or ask questions about election irregularities can call the National APIA Voter Complaint Hotline at 1-800-966-5946.
Discrimination
Volunteers are being trained to field complaints of voter discrimination, intimidation and denial of language assistance. Telephone assistance will be provided in Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi and English.
"In 2000, as the nation focused on voting problems in Florida, in New York City ballots flipped the translated party headings with Democrats listed as Republicans and vice versa; interpreter shortages led to Asian voters being turned away because there was no one to assist them; and poll workers were rude, hostile and made racist remarks about Asian-American voters and their English proficiency," AALDEF staff attorney Glenn D. Magpantay said in a statement.
"We will guard against the disenfranchisement of new citizens and first-time voters in November. Over 600 attorneys, law students and volunteers will cover precincts where there has been a history of voter intimidation and racist remarks made by elected officials against APIAs."
Ms. Hu added, "We are working closely with civil rights advocates across the country to ensure Asian/Pacific islander Americans will be able to voice our vote Nov. 2."
INTER PRESS SERVICE NEWS AGENCY: New Citizens Rising - But at Risk
Katherine Stapp | Monday, October 25, 2004
"The APIA community has a high level of participation, but also a lot of language barriers," explained Janelle Hu, national director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote 2004... "The voting act requires that they be given assistance, but a lot of these services are still not readily available in some communities."
With just nine days before the polls open, some new voters are still waiting for their registration cards, she said, due to a last-minute surge in applications. In Michigan State, for example, 10,000 applications were handed in on the deadline.
"I trust they will all be processed in time for Election Day, but we've been also educating people about asking for provisional ballots," Hu said. "Especially in the APIA community, with the different ethnic names and confusion that may spawn from that, you have to be prepared to demand your rights."
Provisional ballots are used when a voter's name cannot be found on a voters' list; they allow the person to cast a vote and then have his or her registration double-checked at a later time.
"The one thing we have to champion is that people are really engaged in this process," Hu concluded. "They are organising, and making sure that their friends and family are registered. Everyone sees how close the election is and knows that each vote makes a difference."
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS - Influence of new U.S. citizens on elections is on the rise
ESTHER WU | Thursday, October 21, 2004
In 12 days, citizens of this country will have an opportunity to exercise one of the basic tenets of democracy - voting. And according to a report released this month by the American Immigration Law Foundation, voting is a right taken very seriously by new citizens.
Among the key findings of the foundation's report:
*During the 2000 presidential election, there were 10.7 million adult "new" citizens in the country. Of that number, 6.2 million registered to vote, and 5.4 million voted.
*Also in 2000, there were 13.2 million adult Latino U.S. citizens. Of that number, 7.6 million were registered to vote, and 5.9 million voted. There were 4.6 million adult U.S. citizens of Asian or Pacific islander descent, including 2.4 million registered to vote, and 2 million who voted.
*The number of newly naturalized citizens accounted for more than half the net growth in people registered to vote from 1996 to 2000.
*The votes of new citizens are particularly important in "battleground" states, including Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington, where an election might be decided by relatively few voters.
*In Texas, foreign-born voters accounted for 5.3 percent of the voters in 2000.
The bottom line?
Immigrants are a growing part of the U.S. electorate, the report's executive summary says, and in a close presidential race, these "new" or naturalized citizens can affect the outcome.
And there are a number of organizations that have been created to help these new voters make informed decisions, as well as to help educate them on their rights. Among the most active is APIAVOTE 2004, a national coalition of nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations that encourages civic participation and promotes a better understanding of public policy and the electoral process among Americans of Asian and Pacific islander descent.
Janelle Hu, national campaign coordinator for the group, said Asian and Pacific islanders would definitely have an impact on this presidential election.
According to Ms. Hu, in the last presidential election, there was a direct correlation between registration and political participation in the APIA community.
"If we can get APIAs to register, they will vote," she told the United States Commission on Civil Rights recently. "Nevertheless there are still strong barriers to APIA participation in the political process."
According to Daphne Kwok, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, those barriers include language, misunderstanding or misconceptions of the political process, fear of the political system and a general feeling that their votes don't matter.
However, there has been a growing movement among the APIA communities to get involved with the political process. "This time around there is a growing excitement to see the energy level emerge from a grass-roots effort. The infrastructure is finally in place," she said.
The infrastructure Ms. Kwok refers to are volunteer and community organizations that are educating their constituents on the importance of the political system and the power of the vote.
Ms. Kwok also points out that there are more APIAs who are running for and getting elected to public office. "And they become a catalyst for more people to get involved," she said.
Besides the growing number of Asian-Americans in public office, Ms. Kwok also cited a growing concern among APIA voters about issues such as health care, bilingual education, employment and welfare.
"We all have a stake in these issues," she said.
She's right. As Asian-Americans are finally finding their voices, it is important that they vote for the candidates who will speak for them to make sure they are heard.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL: Report: Electoral clout of new citizens
Gaurav Ghose | October 20, 2004
Washington , DC , Oct. 20 (UPI) -- President Bush and Sen. Kerry can only ignore the new immigrant voters at their own peril.
Based on U.S. Census data from the 2000 election, a report released Wednesday by the Immigration Policy Center shows that of the 10.7 million adult new citizens in the country, 6.2 million were registered to vote and 5.4 million actually voted. Although the new citizens in general have lower voter turnout than natives, new citizens who are registered to vote have higher rates of voter turnout than natives who are registered to vote, the report says.
"With the presidential race in a virtual tie, immigrant voters now have the potential to be the deciding factor in one of the potent elections ever," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union, in his opening remarks at the release of the report.
The votes of new citizens are particularly important in 'battleground' states such as Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington, where victory or defeat in an election my be decided by relatively few votes, the report points out.
How fast the immigrant population is growing might not matter to the whole population, but looking at the perspective of when these new citizens grow in our electorate, it is important to know how they are casting an influence on the overall electorate, said Rob Paral, a fellow at the Immigrant Policy Center who authored the report.
"If I am an elected official, I probably know my old voters, I probably know the people who voted in the last election. ... I am worried about the new players stepping out to the field -- I wonder who they are, are they young, are they old, are they immigrants, are they not," Paral said. "I want to know some characteristics about these new people and the extent to which these new players are stepping out to the field. ... One out of five of the net new voters walking into the voting booth are new citizens."
According to the report, while there was 30-percent growth in the number of naturalized foreign-born citizens in the four-year period from 1996 to 2000, there was a 20-percent increase in the number of registered voters and a 24.7-percent increase in the number who voted in the 2000 election. In comparison, the number of native-born citizens registered to vote increased by 0.7 percent and the number of native-born voters rose by 4.7 percent.
And among these growing number of foreign-born naturalized U.S. citizens, the report adds, the Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islanders stand out in terms of their increasing size and power as voters.
According to the report, the voter-turnout rates of whites, Latinos and APIs are much closer when one considers people registered to vote. In 2000, 83 percent of Latinos who were registered actually voted, and 78.6 percent of APIs who were registered did so. Both these rates were close to the turnout rate of 86.4 percent among whites who were registered to vote.
And this year's election is expected to see an unprecedented number of new citizens and other eligible immigrant voters, Medina said.
"This is a critical election for all Americans and especially for new American voters," Medina said. "In this environment where the electorate is so evenly divided, much has been said but little understood about the Latino and API voters and their potential impact on the electoral outcome in November. That is why this report is so timely and relevant to the blue and red states debate."
It is to the credit of various nationwide grassroots coalitions that immigrant communities are working hard to increase civic participation and mobilize voter registration and voting on the day of the election among these new citizens.
The New America Opportunity Campaign and its Immigrant Vote 2004 project in 34 states, Medina said, has resulted in registration of 750,000 new voters, and the number is expected to grow in states where registration has not closed yet.
"Over the next two weeks, we plan to work to turn out more than 2 million new citizen voters on November 2," Medina said. "While the pundits are talking about the undecided, about NACSAR voters and security moms, we will be working in our communities to ensure that the new citizen voters go to the polls because staying home is not an option."
The Asian Pacific Islander American Vote campaign is more engaged than ever before to turn out the vote in this year's election, said Janelle Hu, national director of APIA, adding that it has been found that there is a direct correlation between registration and political participation in the APIA community. In the 2000 presidential election, 83 percent of registered APIAs voted, Hu said.
"Immigrants, young and old, are not only registering to vote but they are organizing, volunteering and making sure that friends and families are registered and voting on November 2," Hu said. "There are APIA Voter projects in over 20 states and 25 cities nationwide."
Besides the feverish political activities taking place in states with high population of APIAs such as California, New York and Illinois, APIA communities are taking part in vigorous voter-mobilization efforts in states such as Nevada, Minnesota and Washington, where the APIA population increased substantially in the past decade, Hu added.
A recent poll of APIAs across the nation shows that one-third of APIA voters will be first-time voters, predominantly from immigrant communities, and 20 percent of this community is undecided, Hu said.
Immigration is not [the only] issue for APIAs, Hu said, but jobs, education, healthcare and hate crimes, particularly among South Asians, are more important, and hence candidates have to convincingly address these latter issues.
While bread-and-butter issues like jobs and education are the most salient of all issues to the Latino community, it is not true that they are unconcerned with immigration issues, said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, director of state and local policy at the National Council of La Raza, the largest national constituency-based Hispanic organization and the leading voice in Washington, D.C., for the Hispanic community.
"Immigration is an issue of a different kind in many ways," Martinez De Castro said. "It is a significant issue because it serves as a test for the Latino community of how a candidate or a party feel about the Latino community."
And echoing Hu, Martinez De Castro said Latinos and immigrants are ready to work with those that "will work with us." And that means, she said, Latinos are willing to support members of different parties if they take an active position in action on the issues that the community care about.
An April to June 2004 poll among Latino adults shows that while 45 percent of Latino registered voters identified themselves as Democrats, 20 percent identified as Republicans and 21 percent as independents.
HMONG TIMES - VOTER MOBILIZATION HEATS UP IN HMONG COMMUNITY
Bo Thao | Saturday, October 16, 2004
“ To ensure that Hmong Americans continue to stay civically engaged, several local community organ-izations are working with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and Asian Pacific Islander American Votes (APIA Votes) to heat up voter mobilization efforts to get people to the polls on November 2… Though constituting just 3 percent, active Hmong American civic engagement in the political process makes their voices powerful. Nationwide, APALA and APIA Vote are working to activate Asian Americans by registering new voters, holding candidate forums, conducting phone banks, distributing flyers and knocking on doors. Efforts are underway in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Hawaii, and New York City. A translated “voter bill of rights” for several states in a number of languages including Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Korean is available.”
Article available at: http://www.hmongtimes.com/displaynews.asp?ID=1647
The New Standard – Getting Out the Apathy: Are non-voters uninterested in the election, or is it uninterested in them?
Michelle Chen | Friday, October 8, 2004
Yet activists also recognize that in the chicken-egg paradox of voter motivation, the establishment is more likely to respond to voter initiative to than to jaded silence. "It doesn’t matter who wins or loses," said Janelle Hu, national coordinator of APIA Vote, because in the long term, "Our main focus is to empower our community through training and education."
United Press International - Analysis: Asians flex their political muscle
KRISHNADEV CALAMUR | Wednesday, October 6, 2004
"We are serious about being part of the American democratic process and viable voting process, said Janelle Hu, national director of the Washington-based APIAVote, a grass-roots organization that works on voter registration in the community.
Hu told UPI her organization was working on registering Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Nevada, Minnesota and Washington state, where the population has surged in some cases by more than 200 percent. APIAVote is engaging both Republicans and Democrats to look at the community more closely.
"Our community has been investing in these campaigns," Hu said, adding she hoped the candidates would incorporate Asian-American issues.
Gannett News Service - Minority groups push to increase voter turnout
By MIKE MADDEN | Monday, August 23, 2004
Voter registration and education projects are under way around the country, some run by Democrats or Republicans but many organized by nonpartisan groups set up just for that purpose. In battleground states where a few thousand votes could tip the election, minority voters could have a bigger impact this year than ever before.
"Our communities are really feeling even more a part of the political process, as the 2000 elections (have) shown how every vote made a difference," said Janelle Hu, director of APIA Vote, a grass-roots organization working to turn out more Asian and Pacific Islander American voters this year.
In Minnesota, Nevada and Washington, APIA Vote is working with local groups to register voters and distribute information about issues in different Asian languages, hoping to engage Asian-Americans in those states in the political process this year.
Small but significant Asian-American populations make up about 5 percent of the residents in each state. President Bush and Democrat John Kerry are competing furiously for those three states, which are among the 20 or so where most strategists think the White House will be won or lost.
…
Blacks and Hispanics each make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population, while Asian and Pacific Islanders are about 3.7 percent and Indians are less than 1 percent. But even in small numbers, an influx of new minority voters could mean a tangible effect on the election.
"Clearly, small numbers can make a difference," said Paul Watanabe, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a co-director of the school's Institute for Asian American Studies.
The nation's Asian and Pacific Islander population is growing nearly as fast as the Hispanic community, and organizers hope to demonstrate their increasing numbers with higher turnout this fall.
The states where APIA Vote is active have some of the largest, most politically active Asian-American communities in the country, but each one is different.
As Nevada has boomed over the last decade, Asians have moved there from all over the country and from overseas. In Minnesota, a large Hmong population is active in politics in the Twin Cities. And in Washington, Chinese-American Gov. Gary Locke, a Democrat, helped spark Asian-American political involvement with his first campaign in 1996.
"We live here, we pay taxes, we are involved," Hu said. "We're really trying to not only educate our community about what it means to organize but show America we are a viable voting constituency."
BOSTON GLOBE – Group Aims to Get out Asian American Vote
By Alonso Soto | Monday, July 19, 2004
''We know we can have a lot of impact on the next election," said Janelle Hu, national director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote 2004. ''Our numbers are very strong. . . . we have the potential to swing the election."
Christine Chen, executive director of the 10,000-strong Organization of Chinese Americans, said politicians have long ignored the political clout of Asian-Americans. In a close election, that vote could spell the difference, she said.
The Frontrunner - Activists Seek To Boost Clout Of Asian Americans
Monday, July 19, 2004
'We know we can have a lot of impact on the next election,' said Janelle Hu, national director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote 2004. 'Our numbers are very strong. . . . we have the potential to swing the election.'"
NY NEWSDAY – Going out to the ballgame for votes
BY LORETTA CHAO | August 9, 2004
Many activists, like Janelle Hu, the national director of Asian Pacific Island American Vote 2004, said this year's election would be important for all groups because politicians are paying more attention to the diversity of their constituents. Her group provides voter assistance in nine Asian languages.
Seattle Times: Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders urged to speak out Thousands attend rally that emphasizes voting
Tan Vinh | May 30, 2004
Fewer than half of the 5.4 million Asian and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. who are eligible to vote actually go to the polls, census data show. . .Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote 2004. . .is leading a voter-registration drive in Washington because the state has one of the highest concentrations of Asian and Pacific Islander voters.
The Washington Times - Asians, islanders get vote awareness; Numbers swell in area, nationally
By Lydia Pound | May 16, 2004
APIA [Vote] is planning to coordinate voter registration and education, while mobilizing campaigns in specific areas with the highest concentration of eligible voters, but activities will not be limited to those locations. . . Still pushing for more voter participation, another APIA Vote goal is to increase the efficiency of smaller local coalitions through centralization and keeping them up to date, while creating an infrastructure that will last beyond election years.
ETHNIC MEDIA:
LA NACIÓN USA (DC/MD/VA): Cerca de 15 millones de inmigrantes naturalizados podrán votar este 2-Noviembre
Por José Fernández Cano | 22 Octubre 2004
LA OPINIÓN: A prueba poder electoral de los latinos y asiáticos
Jorge Luis Macías | 21 de octubre de 2004
NATIONAL APIAVOTE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED HISTORIC RALLY FOR RECORD APA VOTE IN ELECTION '04
http://www.asianfortune.com/jun04/articles/APIA%20VOTE.htm
http://www.zytzb.cn/zytzbwz/newscenter/hlkd/80200407210120.htm
http://news.163.com/2004w07/12620/2004w07_1090375592980.html
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/4/29/n524028.htm (About DC Coalition’s efforts)
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
Director of APIA Vote Janelle Hu said: "We live here, we pay taxes, we are involved and we are really trying to not only educate our community about what it means to organize but show America we are a viable voting constituency." http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/englishRADIO/political/ethnic.htm