Voter Turnout Analysis – Korean American Voters 2009 Primary

The Korean American Voters’ Council has been compiling and analyzing voter registration and voter turnout data for New York State, specifically targeting the turnout rates of Korean Americans in heavily Korean populated council districts.

From preliminary data provided by the New York State Board of Elections, there is a recorded 15889 ±302 registered Korean American voters eligible to vote during the 2009 Primary Elections. Of these almost 16000, 9280 ±234 were registered Democrats.

As you can see from the break down of these voters by age group, the most active registered voters were within the 50-59 and 60-69 age group, whereas the most active voters were within the 50-59 and 60-69 age group by percentage.

According to the data, a similar trend can be seen within Council District 19’s registered Korean voters. There is a larger group of Korean voters in the 50-59 and 60-69, of which participated in greater numbers when compared to other age groups in that area.

The breakdown of Korean voter turnouts by poll sites show the distribution of Koreans within the community as well as a dismally low turnout of approximately 31% across the Council District 19 during the Democratic Primary Elections of 2009.

As usual there seems to be a trend which shows that more of the middle age Korean voters are much more active when it comes to community based events and voting. On average, Koreans between the ages of 50-80 are more than 50% to 80% more active than Koreans between the ages of 20-40, depending on the location. This relates to both community based programs such as outreach initiatives and voting turnout rates.