Asian Americans voted overwhelmingly for Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry on Nov. 2, according to the findings of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

By a 4 to 1 margin, they favored Kerry over President George W. Bush, 74 percent to 24 percent, with 2 percent voting for other candidates, says a preliminary report released by AALDEF.

The report is based on an exit poll that covered 11,000 Asian American voters in eight states who responded to written questionnaires translated into nine Asian languages at 82 poll sites in 20 cities spread across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Michigan, and Illinois.

Of those polled, 38 percent were first-time voters.

The most important issues influencing their vote for president were: Economy/Jobs (27 percent); War in Iraq (16 percent); Terrorism/ Security (16 percent); Health Care (14 percent); Civil Rights/Immigrant Rights (12 percent); Education (8 percent); Others (4 percent); and Crime in Neighborhoods (3 percent).

Among first-time Asian American voters, 78 percent voted for Kerry, 20 percent voted for Bush, and 2 percent voted for other candidates. The most important issues to first-time voters were Economy/Jobs (27 percent), War in Iraq (17 percent), and Terrorism/Security (14 percent).

Among Bush supporters, the most important issues were Terrorism/Security (33 percent), Economy/Jobs (18 percent), and the War in Iraq (12 percent). Among the supporters of Kerry, the Democratic candidate for President, the three most important issues were Economy/Jobs (29 percent); War in Iraq (18 percent), and Health Care (15 percent).

AALDEF said it had also monitored hundreds of poll sites to document incidents of anti-Asian voter disenfranchisement. AALDEF Staff Attorney Glenn D. Magpantay said, “Just like in 2000, this year Asian Americans again faced an array of barriers that prevented them from exercising their right to vote.”

The organization said it is analyzing hundreds of reports submitted by volunteer attorneys, poll monitors, and individual voters, describing how local jurisdictions implemented the federal Voting Rights

Act and the new federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and is likely to release a report on its election protection activities in the coming months.

The 2004 AALDEF exit poll, the national multilingual Asian-language hotline and election monitoring activities were conducted with the assistance of a large number of community organizations, including the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow as well as the South Asian American Voting Youth.


Surveys confirm Asians liked Kerry more

National exit polls conducted by the National Election Pool (ABC, Associated Press, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC News) and the Los Angeles Times found that Asian American voters favored Kerry over Bush:

* National Election Pool (Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International): With Asian Americans comprising 2 percent of the total number of voters surveyed nationwide (13,660 voters), 56 percent of Asian Americans voted for Kerry and 44 percent voted for Bush.

* Los Angeles Times: With Asian Americans comprising 3 percent of a national sample of 5,514 voters at 136 polling places (including 3,357 California voters at 50 poll sites statewide), 64 percent of Asian Americans voted for Kerry and 34 percent voted for Bush.