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AALDEF staff attorney Glenn Magpantay.
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Report Says APA Voters in New York City Faced Discrimination
By Ethen Lieser
AsianWeek Staff Writer
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) recently released a report that stated there were many instances in which Asian Pacific American voters faced discrimination during the 2001 New York City mayoral and City Council elections.
According to the report, 200 APA voters were confronted by hostile poll workers at various voting stations. In Queens, one South Asian American voter was threatened with arrest after being erroneously escorted to several different voting stations. In another case, an APA voter was told to pull the vote-casting lever before he was finished voting, which resulted in the loss of several votes. The report also stated that 350 APA voters were improperly asked for identification.
Glenn Magpantay, an AALDEF staff attorney, said it was the first year that the AALDEF monitored polling sites in New York. The sites inspected were Manhattan’s Chinatown; Flushing, Elmhurst, Floral Park and Richmond Hill in Queens; and Sunset Park and Homecrest in Brooklyn.
Magpantay added that while he was disturbed by the growing discrimination against APA voters, he also saw differences in the ways certain APA groups were being treated. He was particularly concerned with Korean American and South Asian American voters.
The Korean American constituency has become powerful in New York because of its growing numbers. But with many having limited English-language proficiency, Korean Americans have become prime targets for discrimination. “We saw a surge of problems for Korean Americans in these elections,” Magpantay said.
“Many Korean immigrants are monolingual and are not familiar with the voting process,” said Won Kim, executive director of the Korean Community Center of East Bay in Oakland, Calif. “Without the voting interpreters and resources, they will stay away from voting booths or their votes will be invalidated.”
Magpantay said South Asian Americans had to battle race-based discriminations. “For Korean Americans and Chinese Americans, the barriers in voting are language issues, which made it more difficult for them to vote,” he said. “Most of the South Asians we surveyed in New York spoke English, and most did not have language problems. It was more rooted in race-based discriminations.”
Since this was the first year AALDEF monitored the voting sites, Magpantay couldn’t say if the rise in discrimination was directly attributed to the Sept. 11 attacks, but he did not rule it out. He also added that the South Asian American community has become more active in the political process in New York.
Aside from blatant hostility from poll workers, other blunders included absence of APA voter names from the list of registered voters, rejection of voters when affidavit ballots were not offered, marginal availability of language assistance, too-small Chinese characters on ballots and unnecessary police involvement in the election process.
From these reports, six poll workers were fired and 20 were issued letters of reprimand.
On July 26, the U.S. Justice Department released new jurisdictions and languages that will be covered under the Language Minority Provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Korean was mandated in Queens County for the first time, while Chinese continues to be covered in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
“Korean American voter turnout in Flushing was very high during the primary and general elections,” said Sung Kyu Yun, executive director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium. “We hope the Board of Elections will translate voting materials, such as the voter registration form and voting machine instructions, into Korean to accommodate this growing voting constituency.”
But ultimately it all comes down to implementation. Magpantay was cautiously optimistic of the addition to the Language Minority Provisions, partly because of the problems Chinese Americans continue to face. While the Chinese language has been covered in the provisions since the early 1990s, problems still arise, namely mistranslated ballots and lack of interpreters. Magpantay said Korean American voters should expect similar problems in the next election.
AALDEF also has to contend with election reform bills, which are now before a House-Senate Conference Committee. One provision of the bills is the requirement for first-time voters to provide identification.
“Who are the new voters?” Magpantay said. “They are immigrants and students. You shouldn’t treat that population any different from anyone else.”
Magpantay said the shortage of interpreters and resources could be assuaged by more funding, but more actions need to be taken. “We have supported increased funding for elections,” Magpantay said, “but funding isn’t going to change [if] poll workers ask for photo identification from immigrants. We need to address these problems.”
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.
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