AALDEF Exit Poll: Asian American voters still prefer Democrats

AALDEF

Hundreds of AALDEF volunteers conducted an exit poll during the Nov. 8 elections.

Asian American voters overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in the Midterm Elections held Nov. 8, based on exit polling by hundreds of volunteers.

The polling of over 5,300 Asian American voters conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund found  that for the House of Representatives, 64% of the surveyed voters chose the Democrat candidate, twice as many as those who voted for the Republican candidate, 32%.

The results were similar, about two to one, for candidates running for Senate and Governor.

The respondents showed their preference for Democrats despite expressing misgivings about President Biden. Only 45.3% of theAANHPI respondents approved of Biden's performance, 31.4% expressed disapproval and 23.3% didn't know.

“Asian Americans were nearly unified in their support of candidates for the House, the Senate, and their respective governors and were likely the difference in close races in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia," said Jerry Vattamala, director of AALDEF’s Democracy Program. 

Other highlights of the exit polls included:

• Top 3 factors influencing House vote: Economy/Jobs (15.0%), Health Care (14.5%), Education (13.1%)

• Victim of Anti-Asian Harassment or Violence in the Past Two Years: 21.6% Yes, 78.4% No

• Support Requiring Teaching a Unit of AAPI History in K-12: 82.7% Yes, 17.3% No

• Support Access to Legal Abortion: 63.8% Support, 15.8%Don’t Know, 20.4% Oppose

• Support Laws to Protect Transgender People from Discrimination: 65.2% Support, 20.9% Don’t Know, 14.0%Oppose

• Main Source of News: Newspaper (18.3%), Other (15.9%), CNN (13.0%), Radio (9.9%), and Facebook (9.2%)

• Outcome of 2020 Presidential Election Legitimate (DC, LA, MA, MI, NJ, TX, VA only): 59.2% Yes, 16.3% No, 24.5% Don’t Know

Over 550 AALDEF volunteers surveyed Asian American voters and monitored poll sites in 15 states (California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia) and the District of Columbia. 

For more preliminary results per each state, click here.

Volunteers also monitored for compliance with the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act, and to guard against anti-Asian discrimination and intimidation.

"Unfortunately, too many Asian American voters were required to provide identification when it was not required, were sent to the wrong poll site, were not given provisional ballots, and did not have access to interpreters in jurisdictions that were required to provide them,” said Vattamala. 

AALDEF attorneys and volunteers observed several voter problems, including:

• Missing or no interpreters
• Poll workers incorrectly requiring voters to provide identification
• Voters being sent to incorrect poll sites
• Voters not being provided provisional ballots
• Machine breakdowns

Voters were surveyed in English, as well as 11 Asian languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Khmer, Korean, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese. AALDEF will release a more detailed analysis of the exit poll surveys in the future

“Our flagship exit poll illuminates the crosscutting issues that are important to Asian American communities and the values we share. With critical issues like abortion access and immigration at stake in the midterm elections, the Asian American vote is now more important than ever,” said Margaret Fung, executive director of AALDEF.

"In the last decade, Asian Americans have been the fastest growing racial group in the electorate, numbering more than 13.3 million Asian American voters. Their support or opposition can make or break a close election," she said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.