Chloe Lee Research Abstract
Asian Americans have stood as the fastest-growing bloc of eligible voters in the US since 2000, however it is consistently shown that the Asian American population is one of the racial groups with the lowest voter turnout rates in the US. This stark contradiction has prompted growing research on the barriers to complete political participation for the Asian American community, identifying barriers such as language access, limited political outreach, restrictive voting policies, and immigrant experiences. At the same time, most existing research heavily relies on quantitative data, treating the Asian American population as a monolith group and homogenous political population despite other factors such as geographic context, ethnicity, and immigration history. Through fourteen qualitative interviews with eligible voters, nonprofit leaders, and community organizers in Queens (New York), Houston (Texas), and Atlanta/Gwinnett County (Georgia), alongside literature review, I ask two questions: (1)What structural, cultural, and language-based barriers most significantly impact Asian American voter turnout? (2) How do these barriers vary across Queens (New York), Atlanta/Gwinnett County (Georgia), and Houston (Texas)? Furthermore, I also compare how the barriers I identified shift across these three different political environments, nonprofit ecosystems, and diverse Asian American communities. Language access emerged as the most frequently and diversely coded barrier, functioning as a barrier that intensifies and shapes the impacts of others. Political apathy also was prominent, though it operates through family socialization and internalized narratives such as the Model Minority Myth. Beyond these two barriers, geography shapes the impact and severity of various barriers, such as legal struggles in Houston and the lack of delivery for multilingual resources in Queens. Analyzing lived experiences across different political contexts, this research contributes to scholarship concerning access to civic engagement for the Asian American community.
Hi! My name is Chloe Lee and I am a incoming sophomore at Barnard College of Columbia University studying Political Science and Human Rights with aspirations to eventually go to law school. I am interested in voting rights, international human rights, intersectional feminist theory, and the intersection between law and business!
This summer I will be conducting research on Asian American voter behavior and the barriers that shape civic engagement for the Asian American community in Queens, Texas, and Georgia. With the supervision of my mentor Professor Chen, I look forward to learning about the lived experiences and geographic comparisons that will help me understand how barriers influence eligible voters.
