86% of Asian Americans polled in New York voted for President Obama and two-thirds support immigration reform, according to the results of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) exit poll in New York, released today. AALDEF conducted a nonpartisan multilingual exit poll of 4,089 Asian American voters in New York in the November 2012 elections, the largest survey of its kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsian Americans are a rapidly growing portion of the electorate in New York,\u201d said AALDEF executive director Margaret Fung. “Elected officials and candidates should understand the policy priorities of Asian American voters, from the economy to immigration reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
86% of Asian Americans polled in New York voted for President Obama, compared to 77% of those polled nationally by AALDEF. Among Asian New Yorkers surveyed, 69% were Democrats, 8% were Republicans. and 20% were not enrolled in any party.<\/p>\n
The findings also indicate that two out of three Asian Americans (67%) polled in New York supported immigration reform, including a path to citizenship. 70% of those who voted for Obama supported immigration reform, and almost half (49%) of those who voted for Romney supported immigration reform.
\n\u201cAs Senator Charles Schumer and the ‘Gang of Eight’ are poised to propose an immigration overhaul, our exit poll indicates that Asian Americans stand strongly behind comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship,\u201d said Fung.
\nOn Election Day, AALDEF polled Asian American voters in 37 cities across 14 states and documented voting problems. In New York, AALDEF conducted the exit poll in counties with large Asian American populations: New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), and Queens Counties. The largest Asian ethnic groups in the New York exit poll were Chinese (43%), Bangladeshi (20%), Korean (11%), Asian Indian (11%), Filipino (4%), and Indo-Caribbean (3%).<\/p>\n
Across all ethnic groups, limited English proficiency was high. 45% of Asian Americans in New York spoke English less than \u201cvery well\u201d compared to 37% of all Asian Americans nationally. Korean Americans had the highest rate of limited English proficiency at 69%, followed by 51% of Chinese Americans, and 48% of Bangladeshi Americans.<\/p>\n
AALDEF Democracy Program Director Glenn Magpantay said: “We must ensure that the New York City Board of Elections meets its obligations under the Voting Rights Act to provide language assistance in Chinese, Korean, and Bengali. With the upcoming 2013 mayoral and citywide elections, it is critical for the Board of Elections to fix the election process so that Asian Americans and all New Yorkers can exercise their right to vote.”
\n\u201cNew York’s voting process and language assistance must accommodate its increasingly diverse electorate,\u201d said Jerry Vattamala, staff attorney with AALDEF. \u201cNew York must continue to gather information about various ethnic groups to determine whether or not counties need to provide language assistance in elections, and the Board of Elections must continue to work with voting rights organizations to ensure that it is meeting its federally mandated requirements for interpreters, signs, and bilingual ballots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magpantay presented the exit poll results at the offices of Dickstein Shapiro in New York City. Key findings on \u201cThe Asian American Vote in the 2012 Presidential Election\u201d include the following:<\/p>\n
Asian Americans are a growing portion of the New York electorate.
\n\u2022 In the 2012 elections, 29% of Asian Americans were first time voters. Of the Asian American voters surveyed, more than 1 out of 3 (34%) in Brooklyn, almost 1 in 3 (30%) in Queens, and 1 out of 5 (20%) in Manhattan were first-time voters.
\nA majority of Asian Americans favored comprehensive immigration reform.
\n\u2022 67% of Asian Americans in New York supported immigration reform, including a path to citizenship, with the highest support from 80% of Bangladeshi, 78% of Indo-Caribbean, 76% of Korean, 76% of Filipino, 68% of Asian Indian, and 56% of Chinese American voters.
\n\u2022 70% of those who voted for Obama supported immigration reform, and almost half (49%) of those who voted for Romney supported immigration reform.
\n\u2022 70% of those who voted for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand supported immigration reform. In all of the races for House of Representatives, the majority of Asian American voters supported immigration reform.
\n\u2022 71% of Democrats, 59% of Republicans, and 60% not enrolled in any political party supported immigration reform.
\nThe majority of Asian Americans in New York voted for the Democratic candidate for Congress and President.
\n\u2022 83% of Asian Americans in New York voted for incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, compared to 9% for Wendy Long.
\n\u2022 In all of the congressional districts surveyed, at least 75% of Asian Americans voted for the Democratic candidate for House of Representatives.
\n\u2022 In the presidential race, 86% of Asian Americans in New York voted for Barack Obama. The highest support came from South Asian voters: 97% of Bangladeshi and Indo-Caribbean and 89% of Asian Indian Americans.
\n\u2022 Support for President Obama was consistent across all categories, including first-time (90%), foreign-born (87%), native-born (87%), limited English proficient (87%) and English proficient (85%) voters, and voters of all age groups.
\n\u2022 The major factors influencing the Asian American vote in New York were economy\/jobs (52%), health care (36%), civil rights\/immigrants rights (29%), education (25%), women’s issues (13%), and terrorism\/security (11%).
\nAsian Americans in New York have higher levels of limited English proficiency.
\n\u2022 45% of Asian Americans in New York spoke English less than \u201cvery well\u201d compared to 37% of all Asian Americans nationally. Korean Americans had the highest rate of limited English proficiency at 69%, followed by 51% of Chinese Americans, and 48% of Bangladeshi Americans.<\/p>\n
Voting barriers persisted.<\/p>\n
Voters were asked if they encountered any voting problems. Below are the numbers of complaints:
\n\u2022 1120 were required to show identification though 706 of them were not first-time voters and therefore not required to show ID.
\n\u2022 120 were required to prove their U.S. citizenship.
\n\u2022 211 indicated that their names were missing or had errors in the voter lists at poll sites.
\n\u2022 136 had to vote by affidavit ballot.
\n\u2022 116 voters indicated that poll workers were not informed.
\n\u2022 97 voters indicated that poll workers were rude or hostile.
\n\u2022 74 voters indicated that no interpreters or translated materials were available when needed.
\n\u2022 61 were directed to the wrong polling place or the wrong voting machine or table within a site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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