Tag: voting rights

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AALDEF ED on Why Redistricting Matters to APAs

AALDEF ED on Why Redistricting Matters to APAs

The Nov. 1 edition of the Daily News ran the following editorial from Margaret Fung, Executive Director of AALDEF.  In it, she states:

When communities with common interests are not kept together in the same district, residents cannot organize effectively to advocate for the issues most important to them, such as fighting for living wage jobs, preserving affordable housing units, curbing racial violence in public schools, or getting Asian-language access to health care.

Well said, Margaret!  That’s why the Voting Rights Act should require district lines in New York City to be redrawn so that the APA communities of interest are kept together and their votes are not diluted.

To read the rest of the editorial, click the link in the title.

Margaret Fung

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AALDEF: Eleven States Must Now Provide Asian American Voters with Bilingual Ballots

AALDEF: Eleven States Must Now Provide Asian American Voters with Bilingual Ballots

From AALDEF’s Oct. 12 press release announcing important updates to jurisdictions across the country that are required by law to provide bilingual ballots:

For the first time South Asian languages were covered, in four jurisdictions, as well as Korean in New Jersey and Chinese in Massachusetts. The determinations also found a significant expansion in the number of jurisdictions required to provide Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese assistance.

Chinese and Filipino ballots must be provided in four more districts each, Indian and Vietnamese ballots must be provided in three more districts each, Korean ballots must be provided in one more district, and Bangladeshi will be required for the first time in Hamtramck city in Michigan.

“We’re ecstatic that more Asian Americans will be able to exercise their right to vote – and that the voting process will accommodate an increasingly diverse electorate,” said Glenn D. Magpantay, Director of the Democracy Program at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

To read the full text, click on the link in the title.

AALDEF ballot

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