A Texas law requiring voters to show identification at the polls was
A Texas law requiring voters to show identification at the polls was the subject of a hearing two years ago. This new voter ID requirement would create hardships for Asian Americans, whose birth names are sometimes translated differently on various official documents, according to testimony by a community advocate.
Texas Republican State Rep. Betty Brown gave a startling response: “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese – I understand it’s a rather difficult language – do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”
Her message to our community was loud and clear: Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners, not real Americans.
Gov. Rick Perry, who last week misstated the voting age and the date of the 2012 election, signed the Texas voter ID bill into law last summer. The Justice Department has not yet allowed this law to take effect.
Thirty-four states introduced laws this year requiring voters to show photo identification in order to vote, and 12 states considered bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. If these proposals are not defeated, Asian Americans and other communities of color will face new discriminatory obstacles to voting.
That is why the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) will join the NAACP and 60 other groups in New York City this Saturday, Dec. 10 — Human Rights Day — at the Stand for Freedom rally at the United Nations. The heart of our democracy is the right to vote.
In the 2008 Presidential elections, AALDEF sent hundreds of nonpartisan observers to 11 states. We received numerous reports of hostile anti-Asian remarks, such as the Brooklyn poll worker who said that all Middle Eastern voters “looked like terrorists.” A Sikh American voter, with the common surname Singh, wasn’t permitted to vote because election workers in South Ozone Park “couldn’t figure out which one he was.” And a poll worker in Flushing complained, “There are just too many Asians here.” Several Asian American citizens were asked to show ID at the polls, even in states where it was not required.
Over the past decade, the Asian American population has grown 46%, numbering more than 17.3 million nationwide. Asian immigrants have the highest rates of naturalization, and as they become citizens, they look forward to participating in our democracy by exercising their right to vote.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/guest-columnist-margaret-fung-aaldef-voter-identification-laws-discriminatory-abolished-article-1.987552#ixzz1g0JMZPt8