This election season many campaigns for politicians and ballot measures are looking at Asian Americans as a key voter group. The number of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters almost doubled from 2 million in 2000 to 3.9 million in 2012. What’s more, almost half (47%) of AAPIs are not associated with a political party. With a presidential race as well as senate seats and many important ballot measures to be voted on in November’s election, Democrats and Republicans are investigating the best ways to target this key ethnic minority.
One important aspect of reaching Asian American and Pacific Islander voting groups is the complete translation of all campaign materials. More than 39% of AAPIs are limited-English proficient. Voters identified as limited-English proficient who receive information only in English will understand less than half of the written text. Clearly, English-only marketing materials on candidates and ballot measures leave a large population of voters entirely inaccessible.
The importance of accessible voting materials for the AAPI population can’t be overstated. According to a recent survey by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, voter enthusiasm is quite high and “is found across the board for Asian American voters, with no statistically significant differences by ethnicity, gender, age, nativity, and state of residence.”
Source: APIAVote/AAJC/AAPIData, Spring 2016 Asian American Voter Survey (AAVS)
Let Avantpage help you reach LEP Asian and Pacific Islander voters
Avantpage provides high-quality translation of campaign and ballot marketing materials from English to languages spoken by AAPIs. We are experienced in Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi, among others. Our readability assessment tools are particularly important for elections materials because they broaden accessibility for voters. With them, we can adjust reading level of texts or make them match the English source to make sure that the information is accurately conveyed across languages.
Avantpage stands for the right of Asian American and Pacific Islanders to clear and readable election materials in their preferred languages. We believe that democracy works best when everyone is included, and that high-quality translation is an important part of operationalizing those values.
