Countywide : Ethnic Communities Launch Voter Drive

Voicing frustration at their lack of political clout, representatives of Orange County’s ethnic communities on Monday announced their first-ever joint voter registration drive.

Speaking at a press conference in Santa Ana, members of several ethnic groups said their constituencies are virtually disenfranchised because they do not understand the importance of casting votes.

To overcome cultural and language barriers that hamper participation, they have formed the Multicultural Assn. for Voter Registration, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that will try to devise long-term strategies to encourage voter registration and education on community issues.

The association already includes representatives of the Latino, Korean-American, African-American, Vietnamese-American, Chinese-American, Indian- and Pakistani-American and Samoan- and Chinese-American communities among its participants and is hoping to attract other groups.

“Traditionally, Orange County’s ethnic communities have been isolated from each other without is, very much interaction” said Ho Yung Chung president of the association “thisan effort to pull together and enlarge our voices as part of the political process.”

Among the first efforts of the group will be to distribute flyers in 14 different languages and dialects encouraging people to register. The group also hopes to sponsor a conference, featuring experts on voter registration and will send out speakers to various community groups and forums to get out the word.

Several speakers said Orange County’s ethnic communities must start flexing some political muscle if their concerns and issues are to be addressed. However, there was also criticism of the county’s traditional power structure.

“I think both parties have not paid enough attention to” to Orange County’s ethnic communities, said Zeke Hernandez, state director for the League of United Latin American Communities. “They have not responded to the need for members of ethnic communities to become leaders in the inner working of Orange County politics. We want to sit at the table, and when we sit there, we want to be listened to.”

Hernandez, who is also director of VIP, Voting Inspires Participation, a Santa Ana-based voter registration, citizen education program founded in the county’s Latino community, said a united ethnic community will be able to make the difference in state Assembly and congressional races.