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Asian American Voter Turnout High, But Many Face Problems at Polls
Multilingual Voter Hotline Still Available at 800-966-5946
Release by Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
New York City - November 5, 2008 - Asian Americans, especially new citizens and first-time voters,
turned out to vote in record numbers today, but many encountered barriers at polling places, ranging
from inadequate language assistance, improper requests for identification, and missing names on
voter rolls.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) dispatched over 1,400 attorneys, law
students and community volunteers to over 130 polling places in 11 states with large Asian American
populations, who recorded voter complaints and conducted a nonpartisan multilingual exit poll.
AALDEF executive director Margaret Fung said, "Asian Americans faced the same long lines, delays and
poll worker confusion over ID requirements as other voters, but their problems were compounded by
the lack of language assistance and occasional hostility toward new citizen voters."
AALDEF received hundreds of complaints from Asian American voters on our telephone hotline,
800-966-5946, and from our volunteer poll monitors in 11 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Nevada, and Washington,
D.C. A preliminary list of voting incidents appears below:
NAMES OF REGISTERED ASIAN
AMERICANS NOT ON VOTER ROLLS
In NYC, over 200,000 New Yorkers registered in the last two weeks before the Oct. 10 deadline;
there were two voter lists at several election districts, but it's unclear whether poll workers
checked both voter books.
- At P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, several voters claimed they had voted in previous
elections but their names were not on the voter rolls.
- At P.S. 94 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, one voter was told to go home to get an ID in order to
vote-no interpreters were available to explain why this was needed.
- At P.S. 281, Jefferson High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, poll workers refused to look in
voter lists to see whether Mr. "Man On CHAN" was able to vote. He was registered to vote, but
his last name (Chan) had been reversed with his first name, and he was listed under "On." This
problem first occurred in 2005, and apparently, it still has not been fixed. Mr. Chan was not
able to vote today.
- At Bailey School in Lowell, MA, several Asian Americans who registered at the Registry of
Motor Vehicles discovered that their names were not on the voter lists
RACIST REMARKS AND IMPROPER POLL WORKER CONDUCT
- At P.S. 185 in Brooklyn, an Arab American voter who was waiting to vote was told by a poll
worker: "We don't trust you; you're not voting."
- At P.S. 94 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, two Arab American voters were asking some questions,
and after they walked out, AALDEF volunteers heard a poll worker say, "They look like terrorists
to me."
- At Annandale Firehouse in Virginia, voters complained about improper electioneering by one
poll worker, who told Korean Americans which candidates to vote for.
- In Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a Chinese American grandmother needed assistance to vote and
asked her granddaughter to help her cast her ballot. A poll worker prevented her from bringing
her family member into the voting booth, in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
INADEQUATE NUMBERS OF ASIAN-LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS
In Boston (where a Justice
Department consent decree requires Chinese- and Vietnamese-language assistance):
- At Thomas Edison School in Boston, Chinese-language materials were not readily available,
and ballot questions were not translated into Chinese.
- At Academy Hill Library, Chinese interpreters were not identified clearly and signs were not
available to advise voters about these interpreters.
- At Richard J. Murphy School, provisional ballots were not available in Vietnamese.
In New York City, Chinese- and Korean-language voting assistance is required under the federal
Voting Rights Act in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens Counties.
At several sites in Manhattan’s Chinatown, there were interpreter shortages:
- P.S. 2, 122 Henry Street, had 1 Chinese interpreter; 4 were required
- Rutgers House at 200 Monroe Street had 2 Chinese interpreters; 4 were required
- Land’s End at 275 Cherry Street had 1 Chinese interpreter; 3 were required
- PS 94 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn had no interpreters
- P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn had 3 interpreters, 5 were required
ASIAN-LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE NEEDED, BUT NOT AVAILABLE
Asian Americans who
encountered problems at the polls did not have access to interpreters or Asian-language voting
materials. Complaints came from Vietnamese voters at DiSilvestro Recreation Center, Hmong voters at
69th Street Church in Philadelphia, and Bengali voters in Michigan.
IMPROPER REQUESTS FOR IDENTIFICATION
In some states where ID is not required except for certain first-time voters, poll workers still
asked voters to provide IDs. The largest number of complaints came from these sites:
- IS 131 in Manhattan's Chinatown
- PS 62 in Ozone Park, Queens
- PS 12 in Woodside, Queens
- Botanical Gardens in Flushing, Queens
- Telecommunications High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
- Benjamin Cardozo HS, Bayside, Queens
BROKEN VOTING MACHINE
- Latimer Gardens in Queens
- P.S. 230 in Kensington, Brooklyn
- P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
- Botanical Gardens, Flushing, Queens
DELAYS AND LONG LINES/NOT ENOUGH POLL WORKERS
- In New Orleans, some Vietnamese American voters had to wait 2 hours to vote at Sarah T. Reed
HS in Orleans Parish.
- In New Orleans at Mary Queens of Viet Nam Church, voters had to wait almost three hours to
vote; poll workers divided voters into three lines.
- In Philadelphia's Chinatown, lines at the Chinese Christian Church extended for two blocks
in the early morning. By late afternoon, voters said they heard poll workers talking about how
they would soon run out of provisional ballots.
An additional list of voter complaints will be released later this week, together with the results
of 15,000 exit poll questionnaires, which will provide a snapshot of Asian American voting patterns,
including preferences in the Presidential and congressional races, top reasons for voters' choices,
party affiliations, whether they were first-time voters, use of Asian-language voting assistance,
and other specific problems encountered at the polls. In the 2004 Presidential election, AALDEF
polled 10,789 Asian American voters in 8 states, the largest survey of its kind in the nation.
For more information, please visit
www.aaldef.org/vote2008.
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