By Alexander Dworkowitz
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund released the preliminary results of its exit polls taken at the Sept. 25 primaries that found Asian Americans had more voting problems than previously reported but fewer difficulties than in years past.
More than 1,500 Asian Americans were polled at 10 sites throughout New York City, including three sites in Flushing, two in Floral Park, and one in Richmond Hill. The remaining four sites were in Chinatown in Manhattan
Some 39 percent of the respondents were from Flushing, which has a large Asian-American population.
In the survey, 49 percent of the respondents were Chinese American, 19 percent were Korean Americans, Asian Indians made up 16 percent and Indo-Caribbeans were 14 percent.
The vast majority of those surveyed (91 percent) were Democrats. While Fernando Ferrer edged out Mark Green citywide in the Sept. 25 Democratic mayoral primary, the exit polls showed Green easily defeating other mayoral candidates among Asian Americans, earning 40 percent of the vote of respondents with Ferrer at 22 percent.
City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan), who earned only 9 percent of the city vote in the Democratic primary for public advocate, won 29 percent of the vote in the exit pols, more than any other candidate. Freed represents Lower Manhattan and Chinatown in the City Council.
Of the 1,500 who answered the poll, hundreds reported problems at the polls. About 10 percent said their names were not listed in the book of registered voters, and 10 percent said they had to vote by paper ballot.
More than three dozen respondents said poll workers were hostile to them, and several voters said they had received a poor or biased translation.
“The biggest problem that occurred was the lack of Korean translators and poll worker hostility,” said Glenn Magpantay, staff attorney for AALDEF. “Sometimes poll workers actually told translators not to help.”
The Board of Elections, however, said the election was virtually problem-free.
“It seemed to have gone very, very smoothly,” said Naomi Bernstein, spokeswoman for the Board of Elections.
Magpantay did say, “I think that there has been substantial improvement in the elections. We’ve been working with the board. More poll workers understood the process, and there were more Chinese translators.”
The Asian-American vote in Queens tended to be lopsided in favor of Asian-American candidates, according to the exit polls. In the 28th Council District primary in Richmond Hill, 88 percent of Asian-American voters favored Trevor Rupnarain, who is Indo-Guyanese. In the 23rd Council District in Floral Park, 96 percent of Asian Americans favored Jairam Thakral, who was born in India.
Information on the 20th Council District in Flushing, which featured four Asian-American candidates, was not available by press time.
Christopher Kiu, executive director of Asian Americans for Equality, a community-based advocacy group, speculated as to why the Asian-American vote citywide went for Green.
“Mark had done a lot of outreach to the Asian-American community before becoming a candidate,” he said. “He has done a lot of functions.”
The poll also showed that Asian-American voters viewed “Asian representation” as the largest factor in choosing a candidate — 52 percent of Floral Park respondents and 36 percent of Richmond Hill respondents said this was the most important factor influencing their vote.
Reach Reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
