by REERA YOO
Asian Americans are now the South’s fastest-growing racial group, but they still have the lowest rate of voter registration among major U.S. racial groups, according to the Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Well, the State of Georgia is planning to do something about it.
Since July, the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center‘s (AALAC) has been running a campaign with the goal of reaching out to 10,000 Korean American voters for the upcoming November midterm elections.
“Our campaign is designed not only to inspire Koreans to register and vote, but to let everyone in Gwinnett County know that Koreans are a growing and powerful community,” said Helen Kim Ho, AALAC’s executive director, in a press release. “The more we lift our voices together through voting, the greater attention will be paid to the needs and concerns of Koreans. We Koreans have the numbers and the ability to turn the numbers to power for the common good.”
According to the U.S. Census, Georgia has the second-fastest growth rate among Asian Americans in the South and the fifth-fastest in the nation. One of the state’s most dominant Asian groups is Korean Americans, with Gwinnett County having the highest concentration. AALAC estimates that among the 25,000 Koreans residing in Gwinnett, about 11,143 citizens are eligible to vote.
In addition to increasing turnout for Korean American voters, AALAC is hoping to bring attention to the language barrier that creates problems for first time voters with limited English proficiency.
“I’ve had conversations with our community members. We’ve heard people say, ‘You know what? If the ballots were translated, my wife, who is a citizen, would go out and vote,’” Ho told WABE radio. “So, all of us know somebody that could vote, but they don’t because of a language barrier.”
According to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there must be 10,000 or more “limited English proficient” U.S. citizens of voting age in order to obtain bilingual election materials. If Gwinnett county is able to recruit at least 10,000 Korean American voters, then they can formally request Georgia to provide translated ballots and Korean interpreters at voting sites.
Oct. 6 is the last day for a Georgia resident to register and be eligible to vote in November’s midterm elections. Meanwhile, the deadline for requesting absentee ballots is Oct. 31.
Photo courtesy of Evan Changhwan Jang/WABE
