Over 70 percent of Asian-Americans voters cast their ballot for President Barack Obama in 2012, but a closer look at exit polling data reveals some nuances in a group that is often lumped together.<\/p>\n
For example, 96 percent of Bangladeshi-Americans voted for Obama, while only 44 percent of Vietnamese-Americans did, according to the data collected by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian-Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery often the [Asian-American] community is painted with broad generalizations,\u201d said Glenn Magpantay, Democracy Program Director at AALDEF. \u201cCan you really just paint them as monolithic? To some extent, but there was some variation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vietnamese-American voters were outliers in several categories, including party affiliation. Whereas 57 percent of Asian-Americans said they belong to the Democratic Party and 14 percent identified Republican, Vietnamese-Americans were the opposite, with 37 percent belonging to the Republican Party and 26 percent saying they identified as Democrats.<\/p>\n
Magpantay says the reason is simple: \u201ccommunism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came to the U.S. fleeing a communist regime,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a [Republican] administration in the White House at the time, and Nixon had fought the communist regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese-Americans were the least likely to affiliate with a party. Magpantay suggested that only one third of Chinese-Americans belong to a party, compared with 71 percent among all Asian-Americans, because of the negative association of the word party with the Communist Party in China.<\/p>\n
On the issues, Asian-Americans ranked jobs and the economy as the most important, followed by health care and immigration.<\/p>\n
While 65 percent of all Asian-Americans said they strongly support or support comprehensive immigration reform, the level of support was considerably lower among Chinese-Americans (54 percent) and Vietnamese-Americans (49 percent). Koreans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis gave the most support to immigration reform.<\/p>\n
Finally, the poll also looked at whether Asian-Americans can vote accurately using English language ballots. Data revealed that there are only three ethnic groups, Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans, who likely need to have ballots available in language. <\/p>\n
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