Growing Asian-American Voter Power And Pushback

Published by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and Jennifer Lee, October 2023.

Georgia’s Asian-American Pacific-Islander (AAPI) population is growing and increasingly politically engaged. Asian-American voters are distinct in several important ways: their linguistic diversity; relatively high use of languages other than English, especially among older adults; and more common use of vote-by-mail.

Though Asian-American voters have historically turned out to vote at lower rates than white voters in the state, turnout is increasing quickly. Amid expanding voter engagement, the Georgia legislature passed Senate Bill 202 in 2021, creating new restrictions on absentee voting that disproportionately affects AAPI voters. Asian-Americans experienced the steepest decline in absentee voting rates, and absentee ballot rejection rates are the highest among Asian-Americans. Even as voters adapt to added burdens and complexities, new threats emerge: mass voter challenges in counties with large AAPI populations that risk disenfranchising voters and divert resources from other elections improvements, new legislative proposals to create more administrative burden to absentee voting, and both a lack of and sometimes outright hostility to providing voting materials in Asian languages.

As Georgia becomes an increasingly diverse state, policymakers must lean into the challenging yet foundational ideals of democratic representation. When only about half of voting-age citizens in Georgia choose to vote, policymakers should invest in strategies to increase access to and engagement with the democratic process, like providing translated voting materials and simplifying the absentee voting process.