Of 18.5 million Asian Americans in the United States, 7.2 million – double the 3.2 million previously identified – are registered voters, researchers with the AAPI Victory Fund and VEDA Data Solutions have found through extensive ethnicity data modeling.
Shekar Narasimhan, AAPI Victory Fund chairman and founder, told Inquirer.net that the new data model takes into account underrepresentation of the Asian American community – which, according to Pew, is now the fastest-growing population in the country, having overtaken Latinos – due to the failure of national databases to capture ethnicities, instead lumping the entire population under the umbrella of “Asian American.”
The AAPI Victory Fund is a SuperPAC that was formed to encourage Asian American voter participation.
Its analysis found that the nation’s biggest databases are “missing crucial details and do not provide a clear picture of the ethnicities of voters,” which alienates them, according to Shekar Narasimhan, chairman and founder of the AAPI Victory Fund.
“When a voter files list ‘unknown,’ it becomes challenging to engage with voters on issues that will resonate with them,” Narasimhan told Inquirer.net. “This data will allow us to meet our goal of increased engagement with the growing Asian American community.”
The model has identified 7.2 million Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian and Vietnamese American voters nationally.
“VEDA’s machine learning-backed models use thousands of inputs, enabling us to understand the subtle differences between cultures and help the AAPI Victory Fund reach out to members of their community,” Megan Buck, founder and CEO of VEDA Data solutions, told Inquirer. “Our technologies help organizations find fast and accurate ways to better connect with individuals.”
“Increased naturalization rates and increased civic engagement have resulted in an unprecedented growth of new Asian American voters,” said Varun Nikore, AAPI Victory Fund’s vice chair of strategy and operations. “Our goal is to ensure that all eligible Asian American voters are registered and exercise their right to vote in this critical election.”
