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."