Every year during the summer months, we see people of all ages standing on street corners, at subway stops, in front of residential buildings "lobbying" for someone for some elected office. This election year, we have the most important race for New York City, the Mayor. As hundreds of volunteers are activated to educate each other about the issues and the candidates, we have to make sure that the Asian American community is not still "asleep," and "forgotten" in the political realm of our society.

During the presidential election of 2004, with the help of many of AAFE’s supporters, community partners, volunteers and working together with local organizations, we were able to mobilize our community to increase our voting turnout by 25%. In May of 2005, the Chinese American community organized a historic Democratic Mayoral candidate debate right in the heart of Chinatown.

In the next few months, AAFE will continue our voter education (candidate forums, community voter guide, straw poll), voter registration, and voter mobilization (phone bank, direct mail, voter assistance) work for to increase our community’s voter turnout even more than last year.

If you want to learn more about our voter education work or want to volunteer, please contact Frances Yen at frances_yen@aafe.org.