ASIAN WISCONZINE ONLINE



DECEMBER 2022 ISSUE







VOTING RIGHTS




In early US history, only white adult male property owners were allowed to vote. The 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870 and stipulated that men could not be denied the right to vote based on their race) and later the 19th Amendment (ratified in 1920 and granted women the right to vote) to the US Constitution set the foundation for voting rights in this nation.


Subsequent to the passage of these amendments, African Americans and others still faced discriminatory laws and practices in many parts of the country, especially the South. Poll taxes and literacy tests were used to deliberately suppress African Americans’ freedom to vote.


The fight for voting rights runs parallel to the fight for civil rights and is deeply associated with the African American experience in this country. It is also crucial to note the significance women, youth and people with disabilities have had in the fight for voting rights. But this history has significantly impacted the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) experience as well.


AAPIs have faced overt discrimination in the context of immigration laws that helped create negative stereotypes and the long-held image of the “perpetual foreigner.” Anti-Asian immigration laws not only made it difficult for Asian immigrants to enter and stay in the US, these laws also prevented them from being able to naturalize and become citizens. Immigration and naturalization laws were reformed in the 1940s and 50s to allow Asian immigrants to naturalize and be eligible to vote. Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians have faced similar discrimination, though their experiences are different from that of Asian Americans (see section below).


Acts of voter suppression were finally addressed with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) which provided federal protection for voting rights and prohibited state and local jurisdictions from harming minority voting rights. The VRA included provisions that required jurisdictions with a history of voter suppression to seek prior approval for any changes they planned to make to their election laws.


In 1975 an amendment was included that would require jurisdictions with a significant population of non-English speakers to provide those voters with election materials in their language, also known as “Section 203”. There are currently over 300 jurisdictions that are covered by this section and 53 of those are required to provide language assistance in an Asian language.


In 2013 the Supreme Court struck a blow to the VRA. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled unconstitutional a section of the 1965 law stipulating that states and localities with a history of suppressing voting rights were required to submit election law changes to the US Department of Justice for review.


In the years since that ruling, many states across the country have ramped up barriers to voting, including passing strict voter ID laws, cutting voting hours, and restricting early voting and mail-in ballots.


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Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian Voting Rights





The relationship that many islands in the Pacific have had with the US include a long, painful history that includes military force and colonial expansion. The complicated relationships also led to often confusing citizenship and immigration status laws that determine the voting rights of persons from these areas.


After becoming a state in 1959, people in Hawaii, including of course Native Hawaiians, attained full citizenship rights in the U.S., including full voting rights.


In the case of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), while people from those territories are considered US citizens, they cannot vote in presidential elections because they reside in a territory rather than a state within the US. The electoral college system, the mechanism used to elect the President, does not provide for electoral votes in US territories. However, the national political parties may authorize voters in territories to select delegates in primary elections to represent them at the political party conventions.


American Samoa is in a slightly different position than people in Guam or CNMI. People in American Samoa are US nationals, a status that differs from being a US citizen. Like those from Guam and CNMI, they cannot vote in presidential elections because they reside in a territory rather than a state within the US. But they, like those in Guam and CNMI, can participate in the primary process. And as is the case with Guam and CNMI, they can elect one nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives, who is permitted to cast votes in committee and on amendments to a bill but not its final passage.


Another difference between persons from American Samoa and Guam or CNMI is that when someone from Guam or CNMI chooses to move to the US, they can participate in elections once they meet the state’s residency requirement to vote (usually 30 days or less). People from American Samoa moving to the US, however, would have to go through the naturalization process to become a US citizen before being able to vote.



There are other Pacific Island nations that have varying relationships with the US. There are Compacts of Free Association with the Micronesia and Marshall Islands and Palau which give these independent nations certain immigration benefits with the US. Other independent island nations such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Tonga to name a few, do not have any compacts with the US and therefore no special immigration benefits. Whether a compact exists or not, these Pacific Islands are independent nations and their citizens cannot vote in US elections.


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