Filipino-Americans urged: Go out and vote

In the final hours of a four-state campaign day, President Barack Obama is joined by former President Bill Clinton, left, and Democratic candidate for the US Senate from Virginia, former Gov. Tim Kaine, at a rally at Jiffy Lube Live arena, late Saturday night in Bristow, Virginia. AP PHOTO

LOS ANGELES—With just three more days to go until the Nov. 6 election, Melissa Ramoso leads an army of volunteers who are making phone calls, sending e-mail and text messages, and knocking on doors to encourage Filipino-Americans to vote.

“The Filipino-American vote can make the difference in this tight race,” said Ramoso, cochair of Kaya: Filipino Americans for Progress, Los Angeles chapter, who attended a rally here on Sunday urging Asian-Americans to head to the polls.

Ramoso said that in the past few weeks, the volunteers had targeted voters in Nevada, one of the crucial battleground states and where Filipino-Americans comprise the largest Asian group.

Last week, their door-to-door canvassing reached 1,400 households, said Ramoso, whose group is campaigning for President Barack Obama and several Filipino-American Democratic candidates running for national, state and local offices.

The “Get Out the Vote” rally, held at the Japanese-American Cultural and Community Center Plaza in Los Angeles, was sponsored by more than a dozen organizations, including the Asian-Pacific American Legal Center, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Action Fund and the Asian-Pacific American Labor Alliance (Apala).

New voters

Rozita Lee, a community organizer in Nevada and a member of the nonpartisan Apala, said the group expected a surge of new Filipino-American voters—a result of months of campaigning to get voters to register.

“We got more than 1,000 (new voters) within the past two months in Las Vegas alone,” Lee said.

She said volunteers continued to call, text and e-mail Filipinos and other Asian Americans on the group’s database, reminding them to vote on Nov. 6.

“We understand that this election cycle can really be down to a matter of a small margin,” said Genevieve Jopanda, national cochair of Kaya.

“That’s why as a national volunteer organization we specifically focused on Nevada and Virginia, battleground states that have the fastest growing Filipino population,” Jopanda added.

According to the National Asian American Survey (Naas), 52 percent of Filipino-Americans are likely to vote—considered one of the highest among Asian-Americans.

Voting population

The Filipino-American community represents a significant voting population. According to the 2010 census, Filipinos in the United States number more than 3.4 million, with the largest share being in California and fastest growth shown in Nevada. Filipinos are the second largest Asian-American group after Chinese-Americans.

“We need to make sure that our rapid population growth translates into increased electoral participation,” Jopanda said.

“Voter turnout is the only way to ensure that the right leaders who make decisions about our livelihood, safety and the future of our community get elected into office,” said

The Naas survey showed that Filipinos had been one of the most engaged Asian populations when it comes to nonvoting participation by working on campaigns, donating, talking to friends and family, and online activity.

“Our goal is to translate that nonvoting participation into voting participation,” Jopanda said.

Originally posted: 9:01 pm | Sunday, November 4th, 2012