Articles from Philadelphia Public Record

Philadelphia Asian Activists Practise Get-Out-TheVote Skills

2014- 11- 28 10:11:49 editor @pr

BY T ONY WEST / Philadelphias f ast -growing Asian et hnic communit ies are
learning how t o f lex t heir muscle at t he polls.
SEAMAAC, a social-service agency f ounded 30 years ago t o address t he
needs of Sout h Philadelphias Viet namese and Cambodian immigrant s, has
seen an explosion of ot her Asian newcomers since f rom China and Korea,
f rom t he Philippines and Indonesia, f rom Myanmar and Bangladesh, f rom India
and Pakist an. Asians and Pacif ic islanders soared f rom 74,000 t o 107,000 f rom
2000 t o 2010. Many of t hem have since become cit izens.
But t heir concerns are more likely t o cat ch t he ears of public of f icials if t hey
vot e. And just because a person has been grant ed cit izenship does not mean
t hey know how t o vot e.
T here is so much misinf ormat ion and disinf ormat ion out t here, said T hoai
Nguyen, SEAMAACs CEO. Even nat uralized cit izens dont always know t heir
way around t he syst em.

SEAMAACS vot er-t urnout t eam leaders

were, f rom lef t , Vict or Yang, Amy Jones and
T hoai Nguyen.
T his f all, SEAMAAC launched an innovat ive out reach program t o see if it could
get more Asian American vot ers t o t urn out f or t he Nov. 4 general elect ion. It
was working joint ly wit h our Asian American organizat ions in New Orleans,

Bost on and Chicago.

T he t arget was simple: t o get Asian American occasional vot ers t o make it t o
t he polls t his year.
Dat a f rom t he nat ionwide Vot er Act ivat ion Net work can ident if y every
regist ered vot er and which elect ions t hey have act ually vot ed in. T his list was
checked against a dat abase of common Asian surnames. SEAMAAC workers
t arget ed every pot ent ial Asian vot er bet ween Broad St reet and t he Delaware
River, Vine St reet and Rit ner St reet f or canvassing; t hey made phone calls all
across t he cit y.
In t his group, t hey concent rat ed t heir f ire on vot ers wit h mid-t o-highpropensit y vot ers rat her t han hist orically disengaged ones. T hese are t he
vot ers where int ensive out reach is likeliest t o increase t urnout , explained
Vict or Yang, SEAMAACs civic-engagement coordinat or.
And int ensive it was. SEAMAAC t urned out 50 volunt eers f or phone-banking
and door-knocking. T hese met hods are by a long shot t he most -ef f icient way
t o increase t urnout , Yang said. Decades of research have shown t hey can
increase vot ing by 20% among t his populat ion, as opposed t o maybe 1% by
mailers. T he volunt eers worked t he phones and st reet s during t he last t wo
weeks bef ore t he elect ion, not ching 3,300 vot er-communicat ion at t empt s.
T hey wont know how well t hey did, t hough, unt il March 2015, when VAN
f inishes processing t he dat e f rom t he 2014 elect ions.
T o Nguyen, t hese volunt eers were a precious harvest in t hemselves. Many of
t hem were underage st udent s or were not cit izens. Some of t he yout hs were
our most -passionat e volunt eers, he relat ed. T heyd t ell t he elders, I cant
even vot e but Im so mot ivat ed Im asking you t o vot e.
Vot ing is just t he culminat ion of a holist ic process of civic educat ion t hat
SEAMAAC has long been pursuing. We work wit h exist ing et hnic communit ies
as well as our individual client s, said Amy Jones, SEAMAACs direct or of
healt h and social services. Elder groups and yout h groups are part icular
t arget s, she not ed.
Just because a person knows some English does not mean t hey know enough
t o underst and vot ing rules, f ollow polit ics or underst and t he issues. Elect ion
mat erials in languages ot her t han English and Spanish are rare even when
st at e law mandat es t hem. SEAMAAC at t empt ed t o plug t he gap t his f all by
developing a Mandarin-language inf ormat ion sheet highlight ing policy
dif f erences bet ween Gov. T om Corbet t and his opponent T om Wolf . T here
was such a craving f or t his mat erial, Nguyen report ed.
However, Nguyen not ed, We do not want t o say anyt hing remot ely
resembling a part isan st and on any issue or f or any candidat e. All our
volunt eers t ell t heir cont act s is it s import ant t hat t heir voice be heard.

Educat ing Asian Americans on t he democrat ic process is challenging. T hey

represent hundreds of dif f erent cult ures and languages. And while some come
f rom vibrant democracies, ot hers emigrat ed f rom nat ions where t he wise
cit izen keeps his head down and pays as lit t le at t ent ion as possible t o who
rules t hem. T hey need t o learn about t he rough and t umble of American
polit ics, where it s t he squeaky wheel t hat get s t he grease.
Language is at t he heart of Asian American vot er-prot ect ion issues. When
Asians wit h poor English run int o a problem at a polling place, t elephone
t ranslat ors are supposed t o be made available t o t hem. But t his of t en does
not happen. Some of t hese vot ers have learned earlier t hat t hey had cert ain
right s but are unable t o express t hemselves in t ense conversat ions wit h poll
workers on elect ion day.
T he elect ion is over; long live t he elect ion. T he spring municipal primary is just
six mont hs away now. SEAMAAC is already st udying it s approach t o t his
elect ion.
Well be in t he t renches f or t he next decade, Nguyen summed up. But well
get bet t er at it .