The time is now! Register to vote

Actor Ken Jeong urges people to register to vote.

OCT. 24 is the deadline for registering to vote in California. 

Besides being the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., Asian/Americans have the highest income and are the best educated – both factors that have traditionally produced high voter turnout.

However, as a voting bloc, Asian/Americans don’t. In fact, they have the lowest voter participation of any demographic group.

The growth of the ethnic group is mainly due to immigration meaning a large portion of AAAPIs are first-generation immigrants. One of the reasons for low voter turnout is the language barrier even though it is required that voter assistance should be given to anyone having difficulty with the ballot.

In 2014, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund received more than 340 complaints from Asian/Americans reporting problems voting. More than 1 in 5 of these grievances involved being asked to prove their U.S. citizenship in states that don’t require ID to vote. Generally, only a few people in those states would have to provide proof of citizenship.

Another common problem among Asian-American voters is mistakes with their names, causing them to not show up correctly on voter rolls. He said Asian-American names may be unusual to people entering the voter roll data.

This election cycle there has been an aggressive voter registration drive among Asian/Americans by the major parties and nonpartisan agencies.

The anti-immigrant and racist tenor of the rhetoric has also driven AAPI to register. It is still unclear how successful those efforts have been.

RELATED: Hateful rhetoric dries AAPI voters to the Democrats

AAPI celebrities have joined other celebrities by lending their time and names to the registration drives including Darren Criss and Jenna Ushkowitz

Because of the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the Trump camp, Asian/American voters have been steadily drifting towards the Democratic Party. This leftward movement has actually been happening over the past several presidential elections. A national survey in the spring by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, a nonpartisan research group, showed “a significant leftward shift” since 2012 among Asian-American registered voters,

RELATED: AAPI voters lead towards Democrats

A majority of Asian-American voters – 55 percent overall – supported Al Gore in 2000, while John Kerry garnered 56 percent support from these communities in 2004. More recently, President Barack Obama was re-elected to the White House in 2012 racking up 73 percent of the 4 million Asian-American voters who cast ballots that November – up from the 62 percent support he received in 2008.

Fifteen percent identified as Republican.

The Clinton campaign and Democratic Party have been the most aggressive in wooing the AAPI vote and appointing them to highly visible roles, including long-time Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who has been by the candidates side since her days in the Senate.

RELATED: Clinton targeting AAPI voters

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has a resident staff member in Las Vegas dedicated to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Staff members and volunteers here speak Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Tagalog. The campaign has recently been conducting native language training on how to use voting machines in a local Chinese cultural center. Volunteers are sent to court supporters in Buddhist temples.

Comedian Aziz Ansari who stars in the Netflix hit Master of None, aims his PSA at the undecided voters.

Although the number of AAPI voters is comparatively small, 4-6 percent, in some states and cities, such as swing-states Nevada and Virginia, they make up a larger percentage and could be determining factors in the vote outcome.

In California, people can register to vote online.

Once registered, go out and vote this November.

Kamala Harris not polling well among Asian/American voters in California senate race

Atty. Gen Kamala Harris, left, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez seek the U.S. Senate seat for California.

By Louis Chan

REPRINTED FROM ASAM NEWS

A POLL CONDUCTED of 1,106 Asian Americans in California found that support for Kamala Harris in her race against fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez for U.S. Senate is in no way guaranteed.

The National Asian American Survey found a whopping 49 percent of those surveyed are undecided with 25 percent saying they favor Harris to 15 percent for Sanchez.

If elected, Harris would be the first Indian American ever elected to the U.S. Senate and the first Asian American woman elected by California voters for the Senate.

Support for Harris is strongest among Indian/Americans. Harris leads 56 percent to 35 percent.

RELATED:

• Harris' career inspired by civil rights
• Kamala Harris wants to make history

But in all other Asian subgroups, it’s the undecideds who are in the lead.

Harris is currently the State Attorney General and Sanchez is a Congresswoman from Southern California.

In a recent Field Poll of the general electorate in California, Harris holds a 42 to 20 percent lead. Her lead is much narrower in a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California. In that poll, Harris’ lead shrinks to 32 to 25 percent.

Hillary Clinton: One step for a woman, a giant leap for womankind

Hillary Clinton marked the historic moment in Brooklyn, New York City.

THAT NOISE you hear is the glass ceiling shattering.

We can't let this moment in history go by without acknowledging  Sec. Hillary Clinton's accomplishment. Tuesday she officially got enough votes to lock up the Democratic Party's nomination for president - the first time in the U.S. that a woman has become a nominee for a major political party.

“We stand side-by-side with incredible women who are leveling the playing field around the world — from the silver screen to the sports arena, from non-profits to the financial sector, from the runway to the White House. Now, we turn to ask you to stand with us too,” said Michelle Obama.

RELATED: Candidates battle for AAPI vote

Clinton's victory was a momentous event made even greater when the opposing political party's stated goal is to take a woman's right to choose and anti-family positions like reducing child care, destroying President Obama's Affordable Care Act and doing way with Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act. 

Whether you like her or not, her victory should be celebrated or, at the very least, acknowledged, by anyone who has been held down by this country's power structure that is perpetuated by the institutions that form the foundation of America. 

"When he says let's make America great again, that's code for let's take America backwards," Clinton said, referencing GOP candidate Donald Trump's slogan. "Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not for all."

The video shown here is actually a promo released Monday for The United State of Women, a summit called by the White House Council on Women and Girls, the Department of State, Department of Labor, the Aspen Institute and Civic Nation. Women from around the world applied to attend the conference, posting videos on social media making a case for why they deserved an invitation.

The conference will focus on six topics: equal pay; women’s health care; education; violence against women; entrepreneurship and leadership, and civic engagement.

Summit check in will begin at 6:30 a.m. (EST) with programming running from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the 14th. There will then be additional events throughout the following day, June 15th, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at various times. If you can't be there, be sure to tune in on their Live Stream!

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Is the Asian/American vote being ignored?

CNN's John King

THANK YOU John King. The CNN analyst was going over the election results last night and he was the only commentator to mention the Asian/American vote in the California primary. "The Asian vote is the fastest growing vote in the country," he said. In the last few years, the rate of growth has "matched the Latino vote."

Besides King's brief mention, I don't believe there was anybody on television talked about the role the Asian/American electorate played in the state's primary election.

Despite our best efforts on Views From the Edge and at the news site, AsAm News, there is the general impression that the Asian/American vote is being overlooked by mainstream media.

Where are the long analytical articles from mainstream media? Where are the Asian/American pundits on the Sunday talk shows?

RELATED: Candidates battle for AAPI vote

Oh, there were a couple of articles by the L.A. Times that looked at the AAPI demographic but the San Francisco Bay Area media, with one of the highest concentrations of AAPI in California, didn't take a second look.

Give credit to the Hillary Clinton campaign. They were wooing the AAPI vote almost from the beginning. She formed an AAPI for Hillary group in California and they set the groundwork for on-the-ground outreach to the community and appointed an outreach director to the AAPI community. She hit all the right buttons of family reunification, education, and immigration reform.

Support from AAPI voters helped her in Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Illinois and California. The AAPI vote is helping change Orange County in California from a traditional bastion of conservatism to a Democratic county.

RELATED: Clinton targets the AAPI vote in California

An overwhelming majority of Asian voters came out for President Obama in 2012. They voted for him at a higher rate than most other demographics, even ones we think of as traditionally Democrat like women and Latinos.

But nearly half of Asian/American voters aren’t officially affiliated with any party. Their votes were essentially up for grabs but the hateful rhetoric coming from the Republicans pushed a lot of the unaffiliated AAPI voters towards the Democrats.

Orange County, once the bastion of Reagan conservatism, is undergoing a political shift with the large number of AAPI voters exerting their political muscle.

RELATED: Ro Khanna edges incumbent Mike Honda

In the heart of Silicon Valley, how did Santa Clara County's AAPI voters divide themselves when they had to choose between two Asian/American candidates for Congress, Rho Khanna and incumbent Rep. Mike Honda?

Why is frontrunner for U.S. Senate, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, always identified by media as a "black" when her Indian/American mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, raised her daughters by herself after divorcing their father? 

RELATED: Kamala Harris seeks to make history

There are more immigrants coming from across the Pacific than from South of the Border and a recent Pew study shows that Asians are expected to surpass Latinos as the largest immigrant group in the U.S.

So the question was raised by Fusion: Why is hardly anyone talking about the Asian vote?

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

AAPI Congress members endorse Clinton

Hillary For America

AAPI lawmakers threw their support towards Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton May 31.

A WEEK before the California Primary, the campaign for Sec. of State Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of a key group of legislators.

Today, (May 31) the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Leadership PAC, which includes several representatives and senators from California, urged Asian/American and Pacific Islander voters to back Clinton in her bid to become President.

The AAPI population in the Golden State is growing by leaps and bounds and the AAPI electorate, estimated to make up 12 percent of the state's voters, could be critical in deciding to which Democratic presidential candidate the state's hefty Democratic delegates will rally.

“There is so much at stake in this election, and we cannot tolerate any presidential candidate who promotes fear tactics, hateful rhetoric against immigrants and bullying,” CAPAC chair Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday, alluding to Donald Trump, the GOP's presumptive candidate.

“We AAPIs must turn out the vote and ensure that our voice matters,” Chu said. “We must support the candidate who will bring us together, and make our nation more equal and just for everyone — and that person is Hillary Clinton.” 

A month ago, it was believed that Clinton had California in her pocket but a flurry of campaigning by Bernie Sanders throughout the state in the last two weeks has the race in a virtual tie, according to some polls.

While she was back east campaigning this week, Sanders stayed in California even making an appearance at the Golden State Warriors' clinching victory for the NBA's western conference championship. Clinton moved up her return to California to Thursday instead of waiting for the weekend hoping to bolster her lead.

RELATED: It's paramount to get more AAPI voters to the polls

"I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Leadership PAC," said Clinton in response to the endorsement.

"As both First Lady and Senator from New York, I was proud to work with the AAPI community to build a fairer, freer, more tolerant and more inclusive America. During the 90s, the Clinton Administration launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, so the federal government would be more deliberate about helping all parts of the AAPI community succeed. 

"As President, I will fight alongside the AAPI community to at last pass comprehensive immigration reform with a path to full and equal citizenship. Still today, applicants from the Asia-Pacific region make up about 40 percent of the family visa backlog, and too many have waited decades to have the chance to be back with their families. 

In her statement, she also said she would defend Obamacare and improve it, increase investment in education "with universal pre-K and debt-free tuition."

RELATED: Clinton's campaign targeting the AAPI vote

Clinton launched a campaign aimed at the growing AAPI community in California last year while Sanders was concentrating on the early primaries. She recently was the only Presidential candidate to attend an event of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies (where President Obama spoke) kicking off the nation's observance of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month even though all candidates were invited.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.