In the News

As some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders experienced difficulties voting in California's primary Tuesday, voter rights advocates and state officials kept a close eye on one northern county amid allegations of voter intimidation leading up to the election.

Actors George Takei, John Cho, Constance Wu, Sonal Shah, Vincent Rodriguez III, and Joey Quenga are joining forces in a new campaign to urge Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to vote.

Despite being the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, the AAPI participation in the voting process lags behind other groups.

Asian American voter registration has increased 600,000 per presidential election cycle. The number of congressional candidates from the Asian American community increased from 10 in 2010 to 40 in 2016.

LOS ANGELES – After 30 years of defending civil rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice launched a Tagalog helpline to extend their reach of legal services to the Filipino community in Los Angeles.

"We think this Tagalog legal help will help open up services and provide better opportunities so people can get jobs. We know that Filipino-Americans want to be U.S. citizens. There's a relatively good naturalization rate," said executive director of AAAJ LA Stewart Kwoh.

In a small downtown Los Angeles office one May evening, Helen Xiang and her teenage son Sam sat side by side, calling a list of Chinese-American registered voters. 

Sam spoke in English and his mother in Mandarin, but their message was the same: get to the polls June 7 and vote in the state primary.

“We have to encourage our people to speak out," said Xiang, a 52-year-old Alhambra resident. "Your ballot is really important.”