When I saw the headline, Asian-American Voter Registration Not Matching Population Growth, I wasn’t surprised and of course disappointed. This is one reason why I am motivated to be active in politics – to make-up for my fellow Asian Americans. This is the saddest part of the online article (IMHO):
“Despite the Asian-American population increasing 46 percent between 2000 and 2010, those numbers do not necessarily carry over to the voting booth because a large percentage of adult AAPIs are not US citizens, have limited English proficiency, or are simply not registered to vote. According to Eugene Lee, democracy project director at Advancing Justice – LA, in California alone, there are 1.2 million Asian Americans who are eligible to vote who remain unregistered.”
According to the State of California, there are currently 17.6 million registered voters in the state! Back in the Fall of 2007 when I first attending the first San Mateo County straw poll, I asked, Where are you Asian-American? – since the county was over 20% Asian American, and there were barely any Asian Americans.
If Asian Americans are not active in the community, fulfilling a very basic democratic activity, no wonder why some may consider Asian Americans the ‘perpetual foreigner.’ More importantly, if you complain about the government at the local, state or national level, and don’t vote, you have no right to complain! You might as well be living in a dictatorship rather than a democracy.
