It seems that every time I tell some political wonk on the campaign front that I’m mobilizing Asian and Pacific Islander voters, their eyes glaze over condescendingly. To them, the AAPI community (including South Asian Americans) are a complicated and apathetic community to mobilize. This election cycle, this community has been referred to as the ‘Sleeping Giant’ and a national report released this week shows that the AAPI community could be the missed swing vote this for November 4th.
The researchers’ 2008 National Asian American Survey (NAAS) shows that 41 percent of Asian Americans are likely to favor Obama, while 24 percent support John McCain. In battleground states, where either candidate could win on Election Day, Obama leads with 43 percent of Asian Americans supporting him and 22 percent favoring McCain.Researchers point out that a key finding of the study is the high proportion of undecided Asian American likely voters: 34 percent. Among the general population, national polls conducted since the major party conventions show that undecided voters are approximately 8 percent of the electorate.[NAAS]
Yes, the report states the Asian Americans are overwhelming leaning Obama - but even bigger news is that 1/3 of the likely to vote population are still deciding how to vote. Thus, if campaigns want to get the most bang for their buck for the next three weeks, Asian American likely voters seems like a good place to start.
How do the ‘Asian Indians’ fair in this report?
Among Asian American citizens, 65 percent can be described as likely voters. Japanese American citizens are the most likely to vote (82%), followed by Asian Indian (73%), Koreans (72%), Filipinos (67%), Vietnamese (65 %) and Chinese (60%). [pg 1]The report predicts that 43 percent of Asian American adults will vote in the 2008 elections. Amongst Asian Indians, 45 percent will vote, but the proportions are higher if one looks at turnout among the citizen population (73%) and the registered voter population (78%). [pg 6]
Asian Indians identify largely as Democrats (39%) and only 7 percent identify as Republican. 19 percent identify as independents, and 35 percent identify as non-partisan voters. [pg 11]
This election, 53 percent of Asian Indians are voting for Obama, 13 percent are voting for McCain and 33 percent of Asian Indians are still undecided. [pg 13]
Should be no surprise that desis talk politics - 70 percent discussed politics with their friends and family. And 14 percent of Asian Indians have visited the internet to discuss a candidate or issue. (Oh yeah, reading Sepia Mutiny is a form of political participation…!) [pg 23]
The methodology to this was pretty clean - they called 920 Asian Indians and did the sampling bilingually when needed with each of the ethnic groups. Full disclosure, I spoke as a community partner on the panel launching of the California version of the report in Los Angeles on Wednesday. They also have a New York/New Jersey version of the report as well.
The way I see it, political campaigns ignore the AAPI community - we are often spread outside ethnic enclaves, we live in states that are usually not swing states, we have a variety of languages and cultures that require tactics too intense for the typical campaigner trying to get the most bang out of their buck. Because this community is ignored by campaigns, they are less educated on how to vote for candidates, the voting process, and have more barriers to voting. This is likely why we have such a large number of undecided voters in this community and this is why with three weeks left to Election Day, campaigns should be focusing on the significant number of undecided voters in our community.
How? By ethnically targeting voters in culturally component ways. For instance, in-language outreach, outreach to ethnic media, and peer to peer conversations. New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization, a recent report released last month by The James Irvine Foundation shows that targeting the AAPI community with bilingual phone banks has a huge effect on turnout of this community. This report shows a statistically significant increase in ethnic specific targeting for voters. Full disclosure again, I work for one of the organizations profiled in the report.
So, what does the Mutiny think? Do the finding mentioned above about the South Asian community reflect those of your own community? A poll is just a poll but National Asian American Survey is the only report I’ve found with data on the South Asian community and how they are voting on the Nov 4th Election. We have only 20 days left until Election Day and we know that 34% of the likely to vote South Asian American population is still undecided which means YOU have 20 days to swing the desi vote. So, get out there, get organized, and do do what you got to do to get the Desi Vote out this November 4th.
