Voting stickers are being handed out in Las Vegas at an event that seeks to mobilize voters in the Asian and Pacific islands. (Rachel Gianfaza / CNN)
With a live DJ and an ice-cold tea match, organizers moved voters – both new and old – to the Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tuesday afternoon.
The event, organized by One APIA Nevada and the Asian Communities Development Council (ACDC), non-partisan sister organizations that support Nevada’s Asian and Pacific Islands communities, aimed to get voters in the Asia-Pacific region before the election, he said. groups.
“The traditional story is that Asians are always apathetic to voting,” said Eric Zheng, director of the ACDC, who at 33 said he was the oldest organizer in the group.
“We want to break this cycle of apathy,” Zheng told CNN.
The ACDC aims to educate and mobilize voters in an area where the Asian American and Pacific Islander community is growing.
A DJ is playing at the event on Tuesday. (Rachel Gianfaza / CNN)
Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, the ACDC translated guides for non-partisan voters into five languages: Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Thai.
Ashley Hermosura, a 33-year-old Democrat, told CNN she knew how to vote on Tuesday because she followed One APIA on social media.
In addition to social media posts for weeks, the group knocks on doors and sends text messages encouraging community members to vote.
“The Republican Party has great power,” Hermosura said, explaining that she had come to vote for Democratic candidates backed by unions and members of the education council.
Hermosura said she believed in “bringing Asian voices to the polls and showing them as politically active audiences in the election.”
Catherine Lee, 18, who voted in the Nevada primary, described the first-time voting experience as “cool.”
Lee, who voted at another group-sponsored event last Friday, said she was most excited about the vote in the district attorney’s race.
“They shape the results that are important in combating racial discrimination in the criminal justice system,” Lee said, describing why he found the race interesting.
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