50th ANNIVERSARY: Asian/American's benefit from the Voting Rights Act

President Lyndon B. Jonson shakes Martin Luther King Jr.'s hand after signing the Voting Rights Act, August 6, 1965. (Yoichi R. Okamoto/LBJ Library)

AUGUST 6, 1965 marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The watershed legislation came a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, two remarkable pieces of law that basically corrected our country's path towards the America-That-Ought-To-Be.

In commeration of the Voting Rights Act, (VRA) anniversary, Asian Americans Advancing Justice released a report "50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: An Asian American Perspective." The report details how the historic law has had on Asian/Americans' ability to access the ballot. 

“Voting rights and accessing the ballot is a critical concern for the Asian/American community. But without the VRA, many Asian Americans wouldn’t be able to vote,” said Mee Moua, president and executive director of Advancing Justice | AAJC. 

Many new immigrants believe that the rights that we, as minorities in America, enjoy today have always been there. They don't know the history behind the law and the struggle it took to get it codified.

The report dispels what many new Americans mistakenly believe - that the Voting Rights Act was passed to give only African/Americans the right to vote and doesn't apply to Asian/Americans. 

“Most Asians weren’t able to naturalize and become U.S. citizens until 1952, meaning they couldn’t vote. Since then, Asian Americans have often been questioned about their citizenship as an added hurdle to accessing the ballot box," said Moua. "In addition, almost half of Asian American adults are limited English proficient, and without language assistance at the polls, would be unable to cast their ballot.”

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the country and are naturalizing and registering to vote – expecting to make up 10 percent of the electorate by 2044. With this increase in population, comes the opportunity to shape future elections and the future direction of the country. The VRA was intended to ensure that all Americans are able to freely and equally participate in our democracy without discrimination.

Unfortunately, with the rapid growth and higher visibility of the Asian American population, come the fear-mongerers and far-right, status-quo protectors who are passing new restrictions to stem the influence of Asian American voters.

Yet, the VRA is currently under fire following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder that effectively gutted the Act’s powerful pre-clearance regime. 

Tactics to restrict voting rights might have changed from 50 years ago – there are no longer literacy tests or oaths of allegiance. Rather, the tactics are in more sophisticated and institutionalized forms such as laws limiting early voting, eliminating same-day and automatic registration, and requiring qualified identification. Sadly, these modern-day tactics still affect the same groups of Americans – racial, ethnic and language minorities – that the Voting Rights Act set out to protect in 1965.

“What’s most concerning is that states in which we are seeing the most rapidly growing Asian American population are also passing the most harmful attacks on voting in state legislatures,” said Terry Ao Minnis, director of census and voting for Advancing Justice | AAJC and author of the report. 

“For example, immediately after the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision, North Carolina, which has the third-fastest growing Asian American population in the country, passed a multitude of strict voting restrictions."

Just a few examples of suppression of Asian/American votes (there are more in the report):

• When an Alabama-born Vietnamese/American ran for Bayou La Batre city council in Alabama, many Asian/Americans were spurred to register to vote. When they arrived at the polls in the primary, they were challenged and rejected because of their limited ability to speak English correctly. A Department of Justice investigation found the challenges to be racially violated. This caused the DOJ to oversee the general election during which the spurious challenges were not allowed. The Asian candidate won.

• In New York there were cases where Asian/American voters were asked to present their naturalization papers.

• In Minnesota, Hmong/Americans were asked for proof of ID when white voters were not asked for identification papers.

So you see, dear reader, as long as we are perceived as "foreigners" because of the color of our skin, our eyes or accent we will always need legislation like the Voting Rights Act to protect our ballot: our say in the future of our community, our preference of candidates and our eligibility to run for office.

As long as the powers that exist in this country continue to hold on to their status and influence by using, by-any-means-necessary, any strategy to restrict our vote - anybody's  vote - it is clear that we have not yet achieved the America-That-Ought-To-Be.

On this 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, write your congressional representative, to defend the right to vote, restore the VRA and preserve the ability of all Americans to participate in our democracy. (See video below of Christine Chen of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote interviewed by Comcast.)

The AAAJ report concludes, "Voting discrimination and suppression are still very real and very current. Even the Chief Justice John Roberts notes that 'voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.'”

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