Nevada Democrats open their door wider for AAPI voters

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For 2016, the Democratic Party sent teams to Las Vegas' Seafood City supermarket to register new AAPI voters.

With an acknowledgement of the growing Asian American electorate, the Nevada State Democratic Party released its plan outlining changes to Nevada’s caucus process in an effort to increase participation and rebuild trust with voters after the contentious presidential primaries in 2016.

Among the new outreach efforts to increase participation of new voters, the party will provide bilingual preference cards, the state party will also expand voting options and publish preference cards in  the Philippine dialect, Tagalog, and continue popular voting traditions like hosting caucuses locations on the Las Vegas Strip and also in diverse neighborhoods across the state as part of the new caucus plan.

“The Nevada State Democratic Party is creating a uniquely Nevada caucus process — one that reflects how Nevadans vote and the communities we live in,” Assemblyman Will McCurdy, the party’s chair, said in a statement.

The change is aimed at bringing Nevada’s rapidly growing Asian American and Pacific Islander community — which now comprises about 10 percent of the state’s population and is largely Filipino — into the fold.

Filipino Americans in Nevada are employed mostly as nurses, doctors, therapists and other healthcare professionals and as card dealers in casinos.

“Our goal has always been to increase our number of registered voters,” said Rozita Lee, a popular Filipino American community leader. “We can get the attention of Nevada’s political leaders when we have the numbers to show for.”

The state party’s proposed 2020 Delegate Selection Plan will include in-person early voting and offer several methods for absentee voters to participate, which the party hopes will make the process more accessible and open.

As part of the new plan, the party will add four days of in-person early voting, and two days to participate in a “virtual caucus” for people unable to attend on Caucus Day. Early voting and the virtual caucuses are both open to all registered Democrats.

“We all know how important Nevada’s First in the West caucus will be in 2020 and we are confident that we will elect a nominee who will beat Donald Trump in the general,” said  McCurdy.

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