Press Release

2024 Asian American Exit Poll: Language access is the most reported incident disenfranchising Asian American voters

Voters in 5 key locales supported Harris over Trump for president. 1 in 5 Asian Americans polled experienced bias-motivated harassment/violence in past 2 years.

NEW YORK CITY — Today, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) released the results of the nonpartisan, multilingual Asian American Exit Poll for the 2024 election, reporting that language access problems were the most significant barrier to Asian Americans and their ability to vote this year. AALDEF deployed over 600 volunteers who spoke to over 5,500 voters in 12 states spanning the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and the West. The exit poll also covered electoral preferences in 5 key locales, finding that Asian American voters supported Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president, ranging from 43% in Michigan to 81% in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Despite important protections for minority language speakers in the Voting Rights Act, we were troubled to hear from some voters that language assistance, even in places where they are mandated to provide interpreters, was unreliable, insufficient, or nonexistent” said Bethany Li, executive director of AALDEF. “When language access is denied, it’s disempowering. Our exit poll helped us respond quickly to fix or at least address the problems voters were facing at the polls. This is especially important for immigrant voters who don’t speak English well or at all, many of whom were not getting the access to interpreters or the translated ballots that they needed.”

Election day volunteers were deployed to Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. And phone banking volunteers called voters in Arizona and California to hear from voters who voted early or by mail. The poll was administered in English and the following 10 Asian languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Voters were polled on issues guiding their vote. Economy/jobs, abortion, and democracy dominated as the issues voters were most likely to cite as influencing their vote this year. In Michigan, however, the war in Gaza was the top issue for Asian American voters. Voters in New York City showed strong support for abortion access (63%), contributing to the passing of the New York Proposition 1 that enshrined abortion access in the state constitution. And in Philadelphia, voters across Asian ethnicities were resoundingly opposed (73%) to the construction of the 76ers arena in the city’s historic Chinatown.

The exit poll found that 22% of the Asian American voters reported experiencing harassment or violence due to their race, ethnicity, or religion in the past two years.

Here are the results of the Asian American Exit Poll:

VOTER PROTECTION FINDINGS FROM THE 2024 ASIAN AMERICAN EXIT POLL

AZ | CA | FL | GA | MA | MI | NM | NJ | NY | PA | TX | VA

AALDEF volunteers were on the ground in 10 states and made phone calls in 2 states (Arizona and California) to ask Asian American voters about their voter experience and the problems they had while voting. Legal volunteers received special training and were deployed to 4 key hotspots in Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania to monitor poll sites that AALDEF identified as needing special attention.

Language access was the largest category of incidents reported to AALDEF, making up a third of all incidents reported on election day. AALDEF is continuing to receive incident reports from volunteers in several states that legal staff are processing and responding to. Polling volunteers reported the incidents to AALDEF legal staff who called the respective boards of elections to remedy the issues quickly. As a result of these calls, the boards sent appropriate interpreters and spoke to poll site workers to clarify the language assistance provision their respective sites were mandated to provide. But even then, many voters had to vote without the necessary assistance, and at least one was simply discouraged and left without voting.

DATA FROM THE EXIT POLL

Unmet Need for Language Assistance

We capture the need for language assistance by analyzing the language ability of voters and their access to assistance. 15% of voters polled identified themselves as speaking English not well or not at all.

Of these voters:

• 74% expressed a need for an interpreter
• 17% had no interpreter
• 82% expressed a need for a translated ballot
• 26% did not have a translated ballot

*Excluding voters who said they did not need an interpreter or translated ballot.

SPOTLIGHT

Most of the reported incidents concerning language access were in New York City and Philadelphia. In these two cities, jurisdictions are required under the Voting Rights Act to provide language services in at least one Asian language.

New York City

Voters in New York City can vote in the following Asian languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, and Urdu. 27% of voters expressed having a need for language assistance. The statistics below capture the unmet need for language assistance voters experienced.

*When asked if they had language assistance while voting:

• 23% of voters had no interpreter
• 67% of voters said they were helped by an official interpreter on site
• 10% of voters brought someone to help them 

*When asked about their ballot, 39% reported not having a translated ballot.

*Excluding voters who said they did not need an interpreter or translated ballot.

Philadelphia

Voters in Philadelphia can vote in Chinese. 12% of voters expressed having a need for language assistance. The statistics below capture the unmet need for language assistance voters experienced.

*When asked if they had language assistance while voting:

• 15% of voters had no interpreter
• 65% of voters said they were helped by an official interpreter on site
• 15% of voters brought someone to help them

*When asked about their ballot, 44.3% reported not having a translated ballot.

*Excluding voters who said they did not need an interpreter.

ELECTORAL RESULTS OF THE 2024 ASIAN AMERICAN EXIT POLL

MI | NJ | NY | PA | VA

AALDEF is able to share results for 5 specific locales where we exit polled: Michigan, New Jersey, Northern Virginia, New York City, and Philadelphia.

Electoral Highlights

• In New Jersey:
  • Asian American voters supported both Democratic candidates for President and U.S. Senate respectively, but support for Andy Kim (58%) was higher than for Kamala Harris (50%).
• In Michigan:
  • Support for both candidates was low, with Kamala Harris (43%) preferred over Donald Trump (26%).
• In Northern Virginia:
  • Both Democratic candidates for President and U.S. Senate respectively received double the amount of support as the Republican candidate.

Issue Highlights

• In Michigan:
  • Asian American voters most cited the war in Gaza as one of the top three issues informing their vote in this election.
  • This was higher than in any of the other locales, where abortion, democracy, economy/jobs, and public safety were the issues most likely to be in the voters’ top three.
  • 78% of the voters who cited the war in Gaza as a top issue were South Asian.
• In New York City:
  • Asian American voters were strongly supportive of abortion access with 63% indicating that abortion should be accessible in most or all circumstances.
  • This finding is in close alignment with support for New York Proposition 1, which enshrines abortion rights into the state constitution.
• And in Philadelphia:
  • Where Asian American voters resoundingly supported Kamala Harris for president (81%), voters across Asian ethnicities broadly opposed the construction of the 76ers arena in the city’s historic Chinatown (73%).

LOCALES

The results below show the full voter preferences for the presidential and U.S. Senate races and highlight issues important to Asian American communities for specific locales.

New Jersey (Statewide)

President: 50% Harris, 43% Trump

Senate: 58% Democrat, 32% Republican, 3% Other

Party Affiliation: 41% Democrat, 26% Republican, 8% Independent, 25% None

Issues listed in Top 3: Economy/Jobs, Abortion, Democracy

Michigan (Statewide)

President: 43% Harris, 26% Trump

Senate: 50% Democrat, 22% Republican, 13% Other

Party Affiliation: 41% Democrat, 25% Republican, 11% Independent, 23% None

Issues listed in Top 3: Gaza War, Economy/Jobs, Abortion

Northern Virginia (In Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties)

President: 61% Harris, 33% Trump

Senate: 62% Democrat, 33% Republican, 2% Other

Party Affiliation: 47% Democrat, 23% Republican, 7% Independent, 23% None

Issues listed in Top 3: Economy/Jobs, Abortion, Democracy

New York City (Citywide)

President: 54% Harris, 40% Trump

Senate: 61% Democrat, 31% Republican, 2% Other

Party Affiliation: 54% Democrat, 18% Republican, 7% Independent, 21% None

Issues listed in Top 3: Economy/Jobs, Abortion, Public Safety

When asked their support for abortion access:

• 45% of voters said abortion should be accessible in all circumstances.
• 18% of voters said abortion should be accessible in most circumstances.
• 19% of voters said abortion should be accessible only in limited circumstances.
• 10% of voters said abortion should not be accessible in any circumstance.

Philadelphia (Citywide)

President: 81% Harris, 16% Trump

Senate: 81% Democrat, 12% Republican, 2 % Other

Party Affiliation: 74% Democrat, 12% Republican, 5% Independent, 9% None

Issues listed in Top 3: Abortion, Democracy, Economy/Jobs

Support for arena in Chinatown: 73% opposed, 6% supported

BIAS-MOTIVATED HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE

With the rise in violence against Asian Americans in 2020 stemming from the blaming of Chinese people and all people assumed to be Chinese for the global Covid pandemic, AALDEF began asking voters about their own experience with anti-Asian violence. With the fatal violence against Palestinians in Gaza cascading to violence against Arab, South Asian, and Muslim Americans here, AALDEF reworded the question to make clear that this question encompasses all the harassment and violence that Asian Americans of all ethnicities face.

22% of the Asian American voters polled reported experiencing harassment or violence due to their race, ethnicity, or religion in the past two years. And these rates were even higher for some of the specific ethnic groups. Below we share the rates for specific regional categories of Asian ethnicities. The rates were highest for voters identifying with mixed ethnicities or Middle Eastern ethnicities.

• 44% of voters with Asian ethnicities spanning regional categories experienced bias harassment/violence in the past 2 years.
• 38% of Middle Eastern voters experienced bias harassment/violence in the past 2 years.
• 26% of East Asian voters experienced bias harassment/violence in the past 2 years.
• 18% of Southeast Asian voters experienced bias harassment/violence in the past 2 years.
• 18% of South Asian voters experienced bias harassment/violence in the past 2 years.

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AALDEF Media

Stuart J. Sia
Communications Director
212.966.5932 x203
media@aaldef.org