Asians voters faced discrimination in US - International News – News – MSN India - News

Asians voters faced discrimination in US - International News – News – MSN India - NewsAsians voters faced discrimination in US
New York: Asian American voters, including those of Indian origin, faced discrimination in the 2006 midterm elections due to improper voter identification checking, says an election watchdog.Flawed interpretation assistance to limited English proficient voters as well as hostile and poorly trained poll workers too deterred many Asian American voters from exercising their vote, according to a report by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).The report, titled "Asian American Access to Democracy in the 2006 Elections," documents violations of the Voting Rights Act and Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The report is based on the New York-based AALDEF's survey of the November 2006 midterm elections in 25 cities in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and Columbia district. All US House of Representatives seats and one third of the Senate seats were contested in the election.In AALDEF's survey, 40 percent of Pakistani, 38 percent of Bangladeshi and 17 percent of Indian voters were found to have limited English proficiency. One-third of Urdu and one-third of Bengali-speakers stated that they needed the assistance of interpreters or translated voting materials in order to vote. Although only 17 percent of Indian American voters needed language assistance, most of these were Punjabi speaking.The report goes on to detail impediments faced by Asian Americans while exercising their right to vote.