The APIA Vote
By Jennvine Wong, Special Contributor

November 2nd, 2004 will be the date remembered largely for the swirl of media attention around this election. Moreover, it is also the election year that a rise of about 50% growth in Asian American voter registration culminates from the 2000 elections. Yet, with a growing population of about 6 million Asian Americans eligible to vote, there is a much smaller voting bloc numbering at around 3 million that are actually registered and a trend of only a fraction of them going to the polls to vote on Election Day. Asian Americans have become infamous for being politically apathetic. With the effort in voter registration for this past election, Asian Americans were targeted by Rock the Vote in a short clip titled, “The Least Likely”. Asian Pacific Islander Americans are the least likely to vote. Period. The reputation has followed our minority group shown apparent by the lack of interest from all presidential candidates despite the 80-20 Initiative pledging an endorsement of our voting bloc to whichever candidate displays some acknowledgement of the community. With such a large and ever growing population of eligible Asian American voters, our community can make a difference in who gets elected. 66% of Asian Americans are citizens with an overwhelming 75% of the non-citizens expected to become naturalized citizens. Many of Asian American voters are residing in states that are crucial swing states; and our vote could make the difference. What are the reasons for sustaining a political existence that has consistently and stubbornly remained under the radar? The fact of the matter is, Asian Americans are overlooked and, as a community, inactive in major politics. This may have something to do with a general unawareness about the voting process and politics prevalent in the community; it may have something to do with history, and it may have sprouted from our culture.

In the uproar of the 2000 presidential elections, the American people nationwide were in shock over the state of affairs with the polling sites. Everyone heard the claims of disenfranchisement, but did anyone hear about the disenfranchisement here with Asian American voters? Asian-American voters were asked in disproportionately higher numbers to fill out affidavit, or paper ballots, because their names could not be found in the registration book for reasons such as their names being inverted so that their last name became their first name and vice versa; because they were at the wrong election district; or because their registration had simply been lost in the mail en route to the Board of the Elections. In several instances, Asian-American voters were simply told to leave the poll site and come back next year. Under the Voting Rights Act, sections 2 and 203, specifically targeted polling sites are required to provide language assistance to voters. There have been instances of unavailable or inaccessible translated materials, hostile poll workers, and outright discrimination. In the 2000 elections, polling sites in Queens were supplied with mistranslated Chinese ballots in which the party headings were switched so that Democrats were listed as Republicans and vice versa. The barriers that face the Asian American community when they choose to exercise their right vote are astonishing in the year 2004.

In this year’s primaries, I have witnessed in AALDEF’s (Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund) Voting Rights Project, poll workers completely oblivious to the needs and the laws that were made to help make the voting experience equitable for our community. I witnessed translated materials left in their unopened packages, shoved behind machines because they cluttered the table. Meanwhile, there were voters that needed to enlist the help of interpreters to translate the English ballots when translated ballots should have been made available. Some were even refused their right to choose someone to help inside the voting booth. In the 2000 elections, pre- September 11th, South Asian voters were asked at the polls to show their naturalization papers to prove their citizenship. Under the Help American Vote Act (HAVA), only first time voters who registered by mail are required to show ID. Acceptable ID can be anything with a picture and a name; and there is certainly no mention of naturalization papers.

The problem does not lie in the legislation of HAVA, but in the discriminatory application of the law. No other voters, Jewish, Polish, Italian, etc, were asked to show naturalization papers. Asian Americans are still subject to the perpetual foreigner stereotype. Asian Americans are faced with sometimes very discouraging voting experiences. The Voting Rights Act, sections 2 and 203, federally mandate language assistance to specially targeted areas because as citizens, we are afforded the right under the Constitution to be fully aware of the voting process, in English or not. In New York, these languages are Spanish, Chinese, and Korean. Yet, even in such heavily Asian populated areas where Chinese and Korean are languages that are federally mandated, there are sometimes translated materials entirely missing or hidden behind the voting booth because poll workers were not told to keep materials out on the tables. Interpreters are often missing or are isolated and not accessible. At one polling site in Queens, Chinese interpreters were refused seats and made to stand all day and also needed permission from the poll site coordinator in order to leave to use restrooms.

Anti-Asian sentiments have run as recently as the 1940’s. Asians were the first minority group to be excluded from the American Dream through legislation. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first sign of this when in the late 1800’s the Chinese first began immigrating to California during the gold rush. Chinese laborers were welcome to fill in the void of cheap labor, but they were not welcome to stay. Following the Chinese, every other Asian race became distinctly excluded from America through the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924. Filipinos, at the time were still allowed to immigrate in limited numbers until the early 1900’s after the Philippines gained independence from the U.S., they too were excluded. Anyone from any part of Asia, spanning China to India, was being excluded. Even children of Asian descent were subject to being deported or have their citizenship challenged. Asian immigrants were not allowed to become naturalized citizens. In the wake of World War II, Japanese Americans, citizens and non citizens alike, were subjected to internment having their civil liberties and constitutional rights stripped away. Thus, the notion of Asian Americans being viewed as the perpetual foreigner certainly has its roots planted from as far back as from the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Immigrations Acts of 1917 and 1924 which remained in place until as recently as the 1940’s, no less than 60 years ago.

Let’s face it; Asian Americans have grown to become visibly successful in the past few decades. This has only made our community’s issues silent. As model minorities, we have gained one of the highest percentages of higher education for our children. We have climbed the corporate ladder, and we have established for ourselves a better life than the ones many of our parents led on the other side of the world. Our parents, our grandparents, and generations before us, have immigrated to the U.S. looking for opportunities that were not offered in their countries; they immigrated searching for opportunities to better education, income, and livelihood. There are still Asian-Americans seeking for that better life today. Whether they are immigrants or second-generation Asian-Americans seeking to break through their traditional Asian shell, one of the most effective ways to do this is through political action. New York is home to a growing 800,000 Asian American population. The number of elected officials that represent the Asian electorate or are Asian is dismal in comparison.

With so many problems, how can our community remain silent? The Asian-American community is different from the African-American or Hispanic communities; we do not speak up. We do not have a long history of fighting for our civil rights and raising our voices loudly so the government can hear us. We often times, do not even want to give our names. The approach to protecting the civil rights of Asian-Americans has to be a unique approach. We can not use the same technique that has worked so well for other minority groups. When one of us is told, “Go back to your country,” we must be able to find a way to speak clearly, articulately, and loudly enough so that everyone can hear, “This is my country, and I’m already here.”