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Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund Releases New Exit Poll Results

New York—The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund released new findings from its national multilingual exit poll of almost 11,000 Asian American voters in the November 2004 Presidential Election, the largest nonpartisan survey of its kind in the nation.

AALDEF’s publication, The Asian American Vote 2004: A Report on the Multilingual Exit Poll in the 2004 Presidential Election, provides a snapshot of the voter preferences of Asian Americans in 20 cities in 8 states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

AALDEF released special analysis on the 7,247 New York respondents. Voters were surveyed in Manhattan (Chinatown, Lower East Side), Queens (Flushing, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Richmond Hill, Floral Park, Jamaica, Bayside), and Brooklyn (Sunset Park, Williamsburg, Midwood, Kensington). Highlights of the findings are:

Profile of Respondents.

The 4 largest Asian groups surveyed in 2004 were Chinese (55%), South Asian (24%), Korean (13%), and Filipino (4%). 84% were foreign born. 34% had no formal U.S. education. More than a third (36%) were first-time voters.

Asian Americans were largely Democratic voters.

Almost 60% of New York Asian Americans were registered Democrats, 23% were not enrolled in any political party, and only 14% were registered Republicans. By a 3 to 1 margin, Asian Americans favored Senator John Kerry over President George W. Bush, 74% to 23%, with 3% voting for other candidates.

South Asians and Koreans had the highest percentages of Democratic Party enrollment (79% and 62%, respectively).

Economy/jobs was the most important issue influencing Asian American vote for President.

Overall, the most important issues for voters were Economy/Jobs (29%), followed by Health Care and Terrorism/Security (18% each), and then the War in Iraq (13%).

The most important civil rights/immigrants rights issue to New York Asian Americans was Civil Liberties.

Civil Liberties (30%) was the top choice, followed by Affirmative Action (10%) and Workers Rights (10%). Respondents also selected other issues— Deportation/Detention, Hate Crimes, Immigration Backlogs, Language Barriers to Services, Legalization of Immigrants, Racial Profiling, and Voting/Political Representation—but each was selected by less than 10% of respondents.

Asian Americans share common political interests, even across ethnic lines.

Regardless of ethnicity, almost all Asian ethnic groups voted as a bloc for the same candidate and identified common reasons for their votes. More enrolled as Democrats and their second preference was not to enroll in any political party. Civil Liberties was almost always selected as the top choice as the most important civil rights/immigrants rights issue facing the community.

Asian Americans turned to ethnic media outlets for their main source of news.

More than half (56%) of all respondents got their news about politics and community issues from the ethnic press, rather than from mainstream media outlets. 42% of voters got their news from ethnic media sources in Asian languages. In particular, 62% of Chinese and 72% of Koreans primarily got their news from ethnic media sources in Asian languages.

Language assistance and bilingual ballots are needed to preserve access to the vote.

46% of Asian Americans expressed that they were limited English proficient. 14% identified English as their native language.

A number of poll sites were required to provide language assistance under the federal Voting Rights Act. In the 2004 elections, more than half of all respondents needed some form of language assistance in order to exercise the right to vote, either in the form of interpreters or translated written materials. Rates for English proficiency and need for language assistance were higher among Chinese, Korean, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani voters.

Asian Americans faced many voting barriers.

Asian Americans faced many voting barriers. Hundreds of voters were directed to the wrong poll site and complained of hostile, rude, or poorly trained poll workers. Many who did not legally have to provide identification were required to provide identification.

Community exit polls paint a different picture of the electorate. Different results are found when exit polls are taken in numerous Asian languages and pollsters resemble the populations they are polling. For example, only 11% of respondents in the poll conducted by the National Election Pool (NEP) were first-time voters, whereas over a third (38%) of all Asian Americans surveyed in AALDEF’s 8 state multilingual exit poll were first-time voters. The NEP reported that 54% of Asian Americans voted for Kerry, but AALDEF found that nationally 74% of Asian Americans voted for Kerry. Multilingual exit polls reveal vital information about Asian American voting patterns that are regularly overlooked or very different from mainstream voter surveys.

AALDEF has conducted exit polls of Asian American voters in every major election since 1988. Over 5,000 Asian New Yorkers and 3,000 Asian voters in 4 states (NY, NJ, MA, MI) were surveyed in AALDEF’s 2000 and 2002 exit polls, respectively.

The 2004 multilingual exit poll was conducted in 23 Asian languages and dialects. AALDEF worked with several community groups to mobilize 1,200 attorneys, law students, and volunteers to conduct the multilingual exit poll and to monitor polling places for incidents of voter discrimination.

Co-Sponsors of the Asian American Exit Poll 2004 include the Asian American Bar Association of New York, Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition, Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, Boston Asian Students Alliance, Chinatown Voter Education Alliance, Chinese Progressive Association, Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund, Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, Korean American Voters Council of NY/NJ, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights—Boston, National Asian American Student Convention, National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, Providence Youth and Student Movement, Organization of Chinese Americans—Detroit Chapter, South Asian American Voting Youth, South Asian American Leaders for Tomorrow, Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, and Young Korean American Service and Education Center.

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