Forty-nine percent
I woke up this Saturday and had my typical breakfast, a bagel with cream cheese and jam and glass of plain soy milk. I opened up my laptop, pointed my browser to the New York Times and proceeded to browse the articles.
The editorial entitled “The Acorn Story” caught my eye. For those of you who don’t know, the ACORN organization has been accused by the McCain-Palin campaign of actively engaging in voter fraud. Now, that is kind of misleading. If they have been engaged in some impropriety, it certainly is more likely to be voter registration fraud, rather than voter fraud. And according to the editorial, the number of fraudulent registrations is really really small. Why does the McCain care so much? Well, probably because ACORN is an organization that helps low and moderate income folks get better housing. In other words, ACORN looks out for the little guy and those little guys don’t tend to relate to people who own 8 homes.
One particular line in the story did catch my eye:
Meanwhile, Republicans aren’t saying anything about another more serious voter-registration scandal: the fact that about one-third of eligible voters are not registered. The racial gaps are significant and particularly disturbing. According to a study by Project Vote, a voting-rights group, in 2006, 71 percent of eligible whites were registered, compared with 61 percent of blacks, 54 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asian-Americans.
Whoa! 49 percent for Asian Americans? That figure is probably a little lower than what it actually is today, but still.
Voting is just a small part of being a participant in a democracy, but if you’re not registered, you can’t vote. Unfortunately, if you’re eligible to vote, but haven’t registered, you can no longer register in MA. The deadline was last week. These kinds of deadlines are, in my opinion, designed to keep those who have less access to information about voting, away from the voter’s booth. I have a feeling that those folks tend to have low to moderate incomes.
I suppose Asian Americans are also just not that interested in politics. But I’m still kind of puzzled. Any ideas why this is so? Why don’t we make it easier for people to vote? Why not just have election-day registration?
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Tags: Commentary, Elections.
4 comments
Asians turn out pretty hard in City of Boston elections. that’s because of community agencies doing GOTV.
but voting really matters in citywide and statewide elections. does it really matter in national elections? case in point: al gore won more votes in 2000. he didn’t become president. that’s indisputable proof that “every vote counts” is untrue…
Good point. The Electoral College as I understand it was created to “protect our democracy from the masses.” Somehow that feels so wrong to me.
Since not every vote counts the same, maybe people just don’t bother. But it still can matter in a local election. Except local elections don’t have the flash of the big election.
I am very disappointed that voter registration ended last week. If I would have known that, I would have registered! I don’t have any concrete facts on the Democratic process or how anything in our government even works but could it possibly be that keeping people who rarely get any information about voter registration or about voting for anything in general, out of the whole voting process beneficial for the people who hold higher power in our government?
I believe that it makes for an easier job for those people running for power in our government to keep groups of people such as Asian Americans out of voting. Not having a large Asian American voter turn out means that there is less of a need to appeal to the Asian American Communities which also means less spending on getting that Asian vote and less time needed visiting and campaigning in communities that don’t make a difference. Of course i don’t know all the facts so I’m just running on opinion here and things i hear from fellow artist.
But you know I think We should make some moves as Asian Americans and Step up for our rights and make ourselves heard! It is time America notices that we are Americans too and we can make a difference! I’ll be sure to register ASAP and ill sure be spreading the word no matter how small of a difference it would make. Very inspired by your post dude and so very happy I found BPR! I’m from Roxbury right here in Boston and I had no idea Boston Progress Radio existed up until a few hours ago!
I’m happy we found you. I just found out there are 3 questions on the ballot last week. Boo.