This story was originally published by City Bureau on December 2, 2020.
There were 150 Chinese-speaking poll workers in this November’s election, said Chinese outreach director Jane Lau, who has worked at the Board of Election Commissioners for 15 years. She’s worked with churches, libraries, high schools, and other organizations—over time, that outreach had allowed her to virtually recruit more people in this unconventional election year. Lau added she was encouraged to see that 25 percent of workers were high school or college students.
It was in college that Li began the journey of finding out who she is as a Chinese American and becoming actively involved in the anti-racism movement. That change was reinforced after the 2016 election and throughout the pandemic when discrimination against Asians was magnified. Something Li used to feel was distant became personal, she said.
Li and Rice also represent the shifting political attitudes of Asian Americans. A recent analysis by The Conversation showed how Asian Americans used to be a Republican voting bloc, but now are more likely to support Democratic candidates—regardless of voters’ country of origin, gender, and age. The 2020 Asian American Voter Survey shows that they support a range of progressive policies. In that survey, a majority of Asian Americans said they agree that “the government should do more to give Blacks equal rights with whites.”
For Feihong Hsu, who first signed up in 2015, participating in the election was a practical choice—he wanted to practice his Mandarin—before it became something bigger. The now 42-year-old moved with his mother from China to reunite with his father in the U.S. in the late 1980s. Though both his parents have been voting since they moved here, Hsu never really witnessed any election when he was a child.
“I’m a little bit proud of myself, that I’m kind of like, serving my country,” he said. “I also get to know a little bit more about the different candidates in the election.”
