With just 50 days left until the November elections, time is of the essence. As overseas voters, we cannot wait until the last minute to make sure we can vote in the midterm elections on Nov 8, 2022. If you have not requested your ballot yet, visit VoteFromAbroad.org now! Deadlines to request your ballot are approaching, and there is no excuse to not vote this year. There is a lot at stake, and we cannot let Republicans gain control of Congress.
This Saturday, September 24, states will begin sending out ballots. If you asked to receive your ballot by email, you should get your ballot that day (check your inbox and spam folder). Should you not receive anything on the 24th or shortly thereafter, get in touch with your local election office immediately. If you asked to receive your ballot via postal mail, it should arrive soon after Sep 24, 2022. You can still change how you receive your absentee ballot (we recommend email to avoid postal mail delays!) by completing and submitting a new ballot request form at www.votefromabroad.org. Your local election official will note your most recent request and discard previous submissions.
On Thursday, September 22, 2022, join us for “Shifting Tides - Reaching Asian American and Latino Voters.”. We will be speaking with Kathay Feng, National Redistricting Director of Common Cause, and Rudy Espinoza, Co-chair of the California Latinx Dems. Together with the Global Hispanic Caucus and the California State Team, we'll discuss what can be done about the move by Asian Americans and Latinos away from the Democratic Party: What can we do about this, and what do we need to know?
With just weeks to go until the elections, we can use everyone’s support. You can get involved by emailing us at [email protected] or check out these 10 things you can do now to help get out the vote. You can also make a donation to Democrats Abroad on behalf of the AAPI Caucus. Your financial support to our all-volunteer organization will help pay for phonebanking and digital ads.
Democratically yours,
Emily Lines
Chair, AAPI Caucus
Upcoming Events
Shifting Tides - Reaching Asian American and Latino Voters
Thursday, September 22, 2022
9am (DC) | 2pm (London) | 10pm (Seoul)
with the Global Hispanic Caucus and the California State Team
RSVP
Ballot Day Rally
Saturday, September 24, 2022
9-11:30am (DC) | 3pm (Berlin) | 9pm (Hong Kong)
RSVP
Building Trust to Empower our Communities - Understanding and Combating Voter Mis/Disinformation with Kyle Van Fleet, APIAVote
Wednesday, October 12, 2022 (rescheduled)
7am (DC) | 1pm (Berlin) | 8pm (Seoul)
RSVP
Reading Recommendations
Suggested Reading for “Building Trust to Empower our Communities”
In October, we are looking forward to hosting Kyle Van Fleet, Strategic Communications Associate at Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote). He will be speaking to us about how the problem of harmful narratives looks in and impacts AAPI communities, what is being done to confront this issue, and best practices to combat harmful narratives in your own feeds.
To introduce you to this issue, we have some recommendations from our Steering Committee and Kyle to provide some more background about this disinformation and misinformation among the AAPI community:
- Panel discussion: Netroots Nation Discussion on Elections Disinformation and Foreign Interference
- Report: Power, Platforms, & Politics: Asian Americans & Disinformation
Guide to Confronting Disinformation (PDF)
Racial and Ethnic Bias in Asian American Healthcare
As with other forms of structural racism in the U.S., healthcare for Asian Americans has suffered from poor quality data collection and management, along with racialized stereotypes that affect diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing healthcare management.
Improving the Census - a new report and suggestions for improvement
Conducted every ten years, the constitutionally required Census provides for the allocation of seats in the House of Representative by state, the basis for electoral districts, and $1.5 trillion in annual Federal funds for health care, education, and food assistance. The 2020 census was full of inaccuracies, with an estimated 18.8 million people, disproportionally people of color, undercounted.
The Brennan Center has released an important new report, Improving the Census: Legal and Policy Reforms for a More Accurate, Equitable, and Legitimate Count, which provides an overview of the problems with the 2020 Census, along with a number of policy solutions to improve the next census. One of the suggestions is to facilitate a combined race and ethnicity question that includes expanded racial and ethnic categories to account for the diversifying U.S. population, something the AAPI community has long supported. The Report also calls for a National Academies panel to evaluate additional operational changes to increase the quality of future census data, with a focus on eliminating persistent racial and ethnic differential undercounts.
Sincerely,
Democrats Abroad AAPI Caucus