By Joie Chen

(This story is done in partnership with the URL Collective)

ATLANTA, GA: Tucked at the back of a suburban office park in a landscape dotted by bamboo
uprights and surrounded by a mini-farm of Asian vegetables sit the voters who may prove to be
the ‘margin of victory’ in this presidential contest.

Voting rights advocate Kay Kang is here to remind them how important they are. “Asian
Americans are growing fast,” she says, pausing to answer a question about mail-in ballots.
“That means that our turnout will continue to increase. We can make a difference.”

Kang and a team from the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice-
Atlanta (AAAJ-A) are making yet another appearance before the crowd of more than 100
Korean elders at the Joynus Senior Center. The hall is silent as organizer James C. Woo gives
step-by-step early voting instructions in Korean, cautioning his audience to strictly follow the
rules to make sure every one of their votes counts.

“They want to vote,” Woo says. “They are motivated. Especially the new Americans or
first generations.”

But can AAPIs truly make a difference in a battleground state like Georgia?

Black-Asian voting bloc made a huge impact in 2020

Make no mistake, the AAPI voting population in this majority-minority state is still small;
just 4.1% of the Georgia electorate according to the research and policy organization AAPI Data
at the University of California, Berkeley. But the rapid growth of Georgia’s eligible AAPI voting
population—up 42.3% in ten years—has altered the state’s election dynamic and the strategy
for reaching these all-important voters

“If you asked this question a decade ago, the Asian American electorate would not have
been something interesting enough to write about because at least at the presidential level,
those elections were not close and the Asian American community wasn’t large enough to
make a difference,” said AAPI Data founder Karthick Ramakrishnan. “Both of those things have
changed.”

As proof, AAPI advocates point to the fiercely competitive 2020 elections in Georgia,
which not only gave Joe Biden critical votes in the electoral college, but also led to run-offs and
ultimately victories for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in their respective U.S.
Senate races. The key in all three contests, analysts say, was the rapidly diversifying and
increasingly motivated voting population, led by African Americans, the state’s largest minority
group.

“We did see a significant impact made by People of Color as a collective voting bloc in
2020,” says organizer Woo. “We saw firsthand how this mobilization influenced the outcomes
of both the general election and the runoff elections here in Georgia. It was clear that without
coalition work and collaboration across communities, this success would not have been
possible.”

Four years later, “The solidarity between Black and Brown communities has
strengthened, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the aftermath of
the Atlanta Spa shootings, which drew Asian American and Black communities closer together.”

Especially as their numbers increase. “In 2020 we saw a growth of the Asian American
Pacific Islander community in Georgia and that translated in terms of new voters coming out for the first time,” according to Christine Chen, Executive Director of APIA Vote, a non-partisan civic
engagement organization. President Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes, meaning the
state’s electoral votes may have been tipped with their help. “In Georgia, 26% were first time
voters. It was actually three times the margin of victory. So, you really can’t discount the growth
of the AAPI community in the 2020 elections.”

Getting Out the Vote

Determined to build on that, advocates have launched an unprecedented effort to get
AAPIs to the polls. APIA Vote will reach 1.9 million voters with get-out-the-vote materials
delivered in 18 languages, as in-language access remains a key stumbling block for many AAPI
voters. Six in ten AAPI Georgians speak a language other than English at home, but the
population remains too small to require communities to provide in-language voting materials.

While advocates say the political parties and candidates have begun to invest in more
outreach to Georgia’s AAPIs, voter engagement here and nationwide remains low. That could
spell a missed opportunity for candidates, especially in a historic election for South Asian
Indians. “Identity matters,” said Chintan Patel, Executive Director of Indian American Impact. “It
is something that is motivating the community. But it’s not the only thing. Issues matter too.
Values matter too.”

Economy and health care are key issues cited by AAPI voters nationwide. But in the
aftermath of the 2021 murders of six Asian women at health spas in the Atlanta area, anti-Asian
violence is also clearly top-of-mind among Georgia AAPI voters.

Anti-Asian hate key motivator for Asian American voters

In his research, Ramakrishnan said his team found, “Racism and discrimination is the number one ‘no-go’ issue for Asian Americans around the country. In Georgia, ground zero for not just hate crimes but mass
violence against Asian Americans, that is seared in the memory” of AAPI voters.
“What that means,” Patel added, “is that candidates who engage in racially divisive
rhetoric are unlikely to earn the support of Asian American voters. That’s something that
matters, not only for this election but for future elections, not only in Georgia but in other
states around the country.”

Indeed, much of what happens in Georgia this November may serve as a bellwether for
future races as more swing states become more diverse and AAPIs further mobilize their
political power.

“We are actually making a difference in terms of what the electorate will look
like and also what the outcomes are going to be for this election cycle,” said AAPI Vote’s Chen.
“We saw in 2020 where those slim margins are being made up by the AAPI electorate. We’re
starting to see that also in other places.”

Already, early voting in the Peach State has smashed records with more than a million
votes cast in just the first two days, in line with what pollsters predict will be a record high
turnout by Election Day. What remains to be seen is exactly how big a role Asian American
voters in Georgia will play in the final outcome.

“No matter what,” said Kay Kang, “We have to participate in the elections. We are
powerful in politics.”

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

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