ATLANTA — Georgia has a growing community of voters: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The AAPI communities are known nationally as one of the fastest-growing groups of eligible voters in the U.S. A new report by civil rights nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta found that there are more than 200,000 registered voters who identify as part of the AAPI umbrella. Nearly half of those voters showed up to the ballot box in 2022 - an increase from the 2018 election cycle when 39% of the population turned out to vote.
"We really see that gap closing among Asian-American voters and white voters," Jennifer Lee, policy director at AAAJ Atlanta and author of the report, said.
Lee pointed out that, historically, there has been a turnout and engagement gap between AAPI voters and white voters. She credits the gap getting smaller to an increased presence, noting that over the last 10 years, Georgia's Asian-American community has grown by nearly 50%.
What's stopping AAPI voters from making their vote count?
Though the numbers are encouraging, Lee said the report is proof that some voters can be left behind under Georgia's newest voting laws.
Data from Growing Asian-American Voter Power and Pushback for October 2023 shows that AAPI voters were more than twice as likely to vote by mail in 2018. While vote-by-mail was utilized more by the general voting population in 2022, Lee pointed out that there was a noticeable drop for Asian and Pacific Islander voters. She said this was likely because SB202 passed.
The law, passed in 2021, restricts the amount of time associated with absentee ballots and reduces the number of locations where they can be dropped off.
"I say that they're connected because we've talked to voters;" Lee explained. "Often older voters who prefer to use other languages or who perhaps don't drive prefer to use vote-by-mail because they're more comfortable at home, they have more time to review the ballot at home because it's only in English."
Supporters of Georgia's voting law said it strengthens election integrity in the state. Lee said that may be the case, but that doesn't mean the law doesn't impact voters negatively, so legislators should look at other options to make voting easier for the AAPI communities.
"There are a couple counties in Georgia where you can get sample ballots in Asian languages or some voting materials but there is nowhere in Georgia where an Asian-American voter who is more comfortable in Vietnamese or in Korean can go to the polls and actually see their ballot and vote in the language that they're more comfortable in," Lee said.
That's why she hopes lawmakers take the report to heart and implement the suggested policy change: to offer ballots in more languages.
Recommended policy changes to expand voter access for Georgia's AAPI communities
Beyond investing in language access, the report also recommends policymakers protect absentee voting and limit "frivolous voter challenges."
According to the AAAJ commissioned report, "bad actors have challenged thousands of registered voters' eligibility in Georgia." The biggest challenges have been filed in Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett counties - where a large population of Asian-American voters reside, the report reads. This, combined with the statistic that Asian-American voters are the most likely to have their absentee ballots rejected, can disenfranchise voters or deter people from civically engaging in the process to begin with.
"And that's really part of the mission of Asian-Americans Advancing Justice - to try to make sure people are informed - not just about voting, but feel comfortable voting and being involved civically in life here in Georgia," Lee said.
To read the full findings of the report, click here.