Voter Turnout Analysis 2009 Elections – Focus: AD 19-20

On September 15th, candidates are still vying for major pockets of votes before the election. More than just a few of these are Korean Americans, who are well known to be qualified workers, running this year. Although all these candidates are more than qualified, there is not a position for everyone, it is not as simple as that. Candidates must be able to prove their worth to represent the community as well as apply their skills to address problems facing the community, and hence win their support and votes.

Understanding that this year’s political landscape was ripe for change, the Korean American Voters’ Council (KAVC) spend extensive time and resources in collecting and analyzing voter and election data to help identify the voting trends and resolve various issues relating to voting rights advocacy. Specifically, demographics relating to the Korean community and Chinese community in regards to the recent elections were analyzed to see the influence of these communities within the Democratic spheres in Queens, individually and in comparison to other ethnic minority communities in the area.

Results indicated that although turnout within the Korean American and Chinese American community will remain the same, the Caucasian American, Hispanic American, and African American turnout will be lower than in the last year’s election.

Firstly, in District 19, the turnout within Democrats for last year’s presidential election was 70%. Out of 3 40,146 eligible voters, 27,983 voters voted. This is a considerably high turnout.

Additionally, within the Democratic Chinese American community, 1,239 voters out of 2,332 eligible voters voted, establishing the turnout rate of 53%. In contrast, out of 1,877 Korean American who were registered as Democrats, 1,064 voters participated in the election. The turnout rate was 57%. In the city council primary election, it is predicted that candidates need to secure more than 3,500 votes to be elected.

As expected, the number of voters who have registered as a Democrat increased. Overall, 712 new voters registered to raise the total number of eligible Democrat voters to 40,858. Among them, 144 new Korean American voters and 119 new Chinese American voters registered as Democrat, raising the number of eligible voters within their respective communities to 2,021 and 2,450. This conclusion is based on the data collected on August 2, 2009.

Secondly, in District 20, as of November 2008, there are 36,280 Democrat voters. Among them, 20,935 participated in the presidential election, marking the voter turnout of 57%. Within the thirty six thousand voters, 8,077 of them were Chinese American Democrats. 44%, or 3,545 of 8,077 voters, participated in the presidential election last year. Similarly, the total number of Korean American Democrat voters last year was 2,700; 1,381 participated in the election.

Currently, 912 more people have registered to vote, making the total number of voters 37,192. Also, 356 more registered Chinese Americans make the total number of Chinese American voters to 8,433. Lastly, 77 more Korean American voters are registered; the total number of Korean American voters is now 2,777.

KAVC estimates that a candidate must secure at least 2,500 votes to be elected to the city council. Unfortunately, since the Korean American community is a small minority that has produced two of the candidates, it will be difficult for either candidate to get more than 1,000 votes. It is concluded that in order to be elected, the candidate would need to win at least 2000 voters from other communities.

Regardless of districts, the highest turnout in terms of age group is from the voters between 40 to 60 years of age. The reason for this trend is because those between 40 to 60 years of age already have settled in their communities, formed families, and formed a social consensus with each other through sharing information. Moreover, the age groups 40 to 60 have the greatest number of registered voters out of all age groups.

To win the voters of age between 40 and 60, it is important to get support of various Residents Associations, Parents Association, as well as organizational votes from respected members of the community such as firefighters, and Dealers Association, assorted social clubs, and the local unions.

Additionally, since the city council election is a neighborhood-wide campaign, unlike a national presidential campaign, whether the candidate has strived for better relationship between districts and normally fostered an intimate relationship with the social clubs and associations within the community is of greater importance than what the candidate’s position on certain issues are.

In other words, city council election depends on not how famous the candidates are but how long they have fostered a solid local support. It is not possible to be elected after a few months’ campaign. It is of greater importance that the candidates have had direct contact and close relationships with individuals and communities of their district for at least several years.

* kavc님에 의해서 게시물 복사되었습니다 (2009-10-03 00:39)