FIRM has signed on to work with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles and Rock the Vote to assist the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community become registered voters. The statistics are staggering as to the low turnout in elections amongst the AAPI community. This of course includes the large Hmong and Lao populations that FIRM serves on a daily basis. There are many factors as to why this is the case including language barriers, refugee status, cultural barriers and lack of education as to how to exercise one’s right to vote in the United States of America. We feel that this is a problem and are working to help Hmong and Lao people overcome these barriers and become registered voters.
Part of this work includes working with the Registrar of Voters to ensure that there are proper systems in place to recruit bilingual poll workers that work on Election Day. Another component to this work is working with Rock the Vote, which is a national campaign that focuses on registering voters through various avenues. Rock the Vote has developed an online tool for people to register to vote and in California, a resident can do so without any other required paperwork. While it is great that the tool is translated in 11 Asian languages, it has not been translated into Hmong or Laotian. FIRM will be translating the tool into the Hmong and Laotian languages so that both of these people groups will have a much easier way to register to vote in California. We are excited to be the catalyst to provide this tool for the thousands of unregistered Hmong and Laotian throughout the country.
Also, FIRM has partnered with both Stone Soup and the Fresno Center for New Americans to provide voter registration days prior to the voter registration deadline that is quickly approaching (October 20th). At the FIRM event, 20 new voters were registered which is a great success! We look forward to helping more and more Southeast Asians have access to the right to vote! Remember, you cannot vote if you do not register!