Peter Dao wants his fellow Vietnamese Americans to get out and vote.
As host of “Voice of Vietnamese Americans Radio 1600 AM,” he strives to get people from traditionally less active communities to vote.
And he thinks it’s working.
On the first day of early voting, Dao stood outside the VVA studio in Grand Prairie’s Asia Times Square and told KERA News that the line to get into the polling place stretched at least 100 yards outside the building.
Asian Americans make up 7% of Arlington’s population, according to city data. About the same percentage of Grand Prairie residents are Asian, and nearly 5% of Mansfield residents identify as AAPI, according to census data.
Data on how many Asian Americans are registered to vote in Arlington or Tarrant counties was not immediately available.
Nationally, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 60% of Asian American voters cast a ballot in 2020, and about 64% of Asian voters are registered.
Mr. Dao, who came to the United States as a refugee from the Vietnam War, doesn’t care as much about who people vote for as he does how many votes he votes. He wants the Asian American community represented, and hopes increased voter turnout will encourage elected officials to recognize the Asian American community.
“Our vote is our voice,” Dao told KERA News. “If we don’t have enough votes, there is no advantage for us compared to other communities that may have more votes than us. That’s what we remind people. It’s one of the things you have to do.”
Ground game for voting
Asian Texans for Justice (ATJ) takes a more hands-on approach. Founder Alice Yee said the group is a pan-Asian organization formed in 2021.
She recognized that there are many organizations in the state that serve specific groups in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, but she is working to build connections across those communities. There wasn’t one she knew was there.
Yee hopes the Asian American community across Texas will come together, whether they are of East Asian, Southeast Asian or South Asian descent.
She said she works on electoral education and getting out the vote while building coalitions, fostering civic engagement and encouraging young Asian Americans to become leaders.
Yee said ATJ is also working to research what issues are important to people in Texas’ Asian American community. Although the organization is nonpartisan, knowing what’s important to the community helps ATJ understand how to encourage people to vote.
“We did a little research to show what the AAPI community is actually interested in,” Yi says. “What are their top priorities? We use those to generate messages.”
ATJ has spent a lot of time knocking on doors this year.
Rashun Roy, ATJ’s Tarrant County coordinator, said the organization’s volunteers are handing out flyers in multiple languages. Handouts and mailers will display messages in Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, and English.
It made a big difference, she said.
“People were excited when they were handed something and looked at it, but not just to see that it was all in English,” Roy told KERA News. “That makes the difference between interacting with people who are recruiting from their homes and interacting with people who actually want to engage and listen to what the recruiter has to say, rather than just saying, ‘Hey, how are you?’ “Goodbye, have a nice day.” ”
The handouts include details about voting rights, protections, where to vote, how to ensure voters are properly registered, and what to do if voters face discrimination or efforts to prevent them from voting. There is.
ATJ has a tool called Vote Builder that voters can use to enter their information and see the full text of their ballot, including a bipartisan explanation of the candidate’s platform and positions. Although Ballot Builder was created for the AAPI community, Yi wants others to use it to research candidates, especially negative votes.
Reach Asian American voters
Both Dao and Yi said people tend to feel more comfortable when they can get voting information in their native or traditional language and from people who look like them.
VVA also broadcasts candidates.
Like Dennis Wilkerson, the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 94, and supporter Juan Nguyen, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral.
The interview was conducted primarily in Vietnamese, with several people assisting in translating Wilkerson’s questions into English and Wilkerson’s responses into Vietnamese.
“We asked them what motivated them to run for office, whether it be for state office, city or county,” Dao said.
Nguyen was born in Hue, Vietnam, and was the first Vietnamese American to earn the flag rank, one of the ranks of admiral. In a VVA interview translated from Vietnamese for KERA News, Nguyen urged listeners to use their ballots as a voice.
“We live for and by the people, so please vote for the person who deserves to represent this community,” he said in Vietnamese, referring to the representation of the Asian American community.
Dao said hearing such information and interviews in their first language will help many first-generation Vietnamese voters feel more confident and informed when voting.
“Especially those who came recently, those who came after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, and those who lived under communism…your vote means nothing,” Dao said. . “We think it’s different and we know our vote matters. … That’s the difference our people vote here.”
There are several things that are already helping people in Arlington’s Vietnamese community feel more confident going to the polls. Signs marking polling places have messages in Vietnamese, and many polling places have interpreters for Vietnamese speakers.
Yi said there are still communities that would benefit from expressing their native or traditional languages in the same way, such as Korean or Hindi.
James Hartley is KERA’s Arlington correspondent. Email jhartley@kera.org.
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