Quiet Minority Swings Vote

Every vote counts. Asian American make up 5% of the U.S. population and as much as 12% in states like California, our power and influence should not be underestimated. We may not be as active as we should, but we could swing and change landscape.

Asian American is known to be the quiet minority. We don’t speak out for what we need – at least not as loud as African American and Latino. Many of us don’t vote. Politicians would think “If I do them good, they won’t give me their votes since they don’t vote. If I do them bad, they are not noisy enough to hurt me. With limited resources (time and money), I’d rather focus on the other groups.”

Asian’s quietness is part of the culture. A lot of us are brought up and taught not to question authority or the system. For someone who was told to follow the assigned leaders without questions, voting does not come natural. In fact, voting system is still relatively new in some areas in Asia.

The no-questioning mentality not only leads to low voting turnout, it also translates to reluctance to run for political office. To improve this, education is the key. There are groups like Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE), Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) and 80-20 that try to counter the fear and barrier.

“[The Asian population] is growing really quickly, and it’s a shame we’re not harnessing our potential,” said Sharon Chen, Executive Director of CAUSE.

I personally think it is a chicken-or-egg issue. Politicians will devote more attention to Asian Americans only if they vote and raise their voice. More Asian Americans will vote and raise their voice only if politicians devote more attention to them.

With the sizeable influence Asian Americans can wield in an election, as evidenced by Super Tuesday, candidates running for office would do well to campaign within this community. Bel Leong-Hong, the chair of the Democratic National Committee's Asian Pacific Islander American Caucus believes “the conversation needs to go beyond just addressing this constituency as an afterthought to other ethnic groups. In a close election, the result could come down to a swing group, which, considering their support for Clinton, could very well be Asian Americans.”

(Source of Chen and Leong-Hong’s quotes: The Huffington Post “The Asian-American Minority Swing Vote” by Natasha Chen)