aKDPhiVotes Uses Its Voice to Increase AAPI Voter Turnout
In the 2020 United States elections, the APIDA community finds its voice. While Asian American Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDA) are among the fastest growing racial groups in the United States, historically our community has one of the lowest voter turnouts. The APIDA community set record-breaking numbers in engagement and involvement in this year’s election. Early voting among APIDA voters increased by 310%, jumping from 1.25 million in 2016 to 4 million early voters in 2020. Historic turnout is largely thanks to the partnership of APIAvote and several organizations and volunteers out-reaching over 700,000 APIDA households.
APIAVote is a national, nonpartisan organization that works to promote civic engagement and participation within the APIDA community. In collaboration with APIAVote, aKDPhi hosted a public viewing party of the 2020 Presidential Town Hall.
As the largest and fastest growing AAPI-interest sorority, aKDPhi sisters recognize the significance of our involvement in civic engagement. Our aKDPhiVotes committee mobilized several initiatives with APIAVote, including a partnership with The 2020 Project and becoming a Premier Partner for the 2020 Presidential Election. aKDPhi also collaborated with the sisters of Delta Kappa Delta Sorority through the Together for Change Collaboration to share tips on how to safely vote, and provide volunteer information.
The aKDPhiVotes initiative inspired Amelia Laytham, an Alpha class sister from Pennsylvania State University, to influence her own community in Atlanta, Georgia. She volunteered with various AAPI organizations, wrote postcards, did text banking, delivered yard signs--anything she could to encourage the APIDA community to go out and vote. Amelia hadn’t consider herself a political activist before, but was moved to change by the social unrest of the summer and in seeing aKDPhi sisters energized by the #StrolltothePolls movement created by Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) soror Maisha Land. Amelia even submitted a short video to be included in the movement’s official compilation video.
The #StrolltothePolls movement began as a way to mobilize Divine Nine (D9) Black Greek-lettered organizations in Greek unity and encourage voter turnout in the Black community. Although a non-partisan effort, it was inspired by the Democratic vice-presidential nomination of Kamala Harris, who is an Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) soror. Kamala Harris’s inauguration as Vice President is historic since she will be the first Asian-American and the first African-American to serve in the role.
A historic election with many firsts, and hopefully only the beginning for APIDA civic engagement. In 1952 the McCarran-Walter Act gave people of Asian ancestry a path to citizenship and the right to vote. 68 years later the APIDA community is finally using its voice. It’s never too late to start.
“You have a lifetime to be relevant. You can treat life as a sprint or a marathon. I didn’t really become this active until recently. Don’t feel bad that you haven’t been involved in election or GOTV efforts. Just know that it’s never too late or too early, and it has to be on your pace,” affirms Amelia. She also offered some tips and recommendations for sisters interested in getting involved in political activism:
Decide how involved you want to be
Know your limitations and stick to your time commitment
Leverage existing efforts so you’re not starting from scratch
Safety in numbers (Amelia only attended rallies organized by groups she was familiar with like NAACP or Pride)
It’s important our APIDA community continues to engage in politics, break down language-barriers, educate our friends and families to understand the laws and policies that affect us, work to eliminate misinformation, and encourage voter turnout for elections. Seeing the results of various groups to increase APIDA voter turnout should inspire us. We have opportunities to build our presence and bring APIDA representation to politics by forming more APIDA-lead organizations or sophisticating those that are established. Our voices matter and our votes matter. Let’s continue to make ourselves seen and heard.