Early voter turnouts have hit record highs this year in the United States, ahead of Election Day on November 3. Pre-election voting has surpassed two-thirds of the total turnout of the 2016 presidential election, powered by fears about the Covid-19 pandemic and a concerted effort from grassroots organisations dedicated to mobilising voters.
While specific data is not available for the South Asian community yet, Asian American and Pacific Islander voter turnout has been huge in battleground states, including Texas and Georgia. Asian voters, which includes Indian-Americans, have already exceeded their total 2016 turnout by 151% in Texas and 141% in Georgia.
Those numbers point to a massive ‘get-out-the-vote’ effort, often referred to as GOTV, by grassroots organisations, including those that focus on making the election process easy to navigate for immigrants from the South Asian community.
Get-out-the-vote outreach typically begins around Labour Day in early September. This year, however, the pandemic forced grassroots advocates to become more creative with their efforts. GOTV includes everything from targeted ads by candidates to activists sharing content and advocacy groups organising events, with the aim of increasing political awareness and encouraging people to vote. Local groups aimed at educating immigrant communities on how to register to vote, as well as the different ways to vote, play a pivotal role in influencing voter turnout.
One such group, Bangladeshi Americans for Political Progress, or BAPP, has been using media popular among the Bangladeshi community, like TBN24, a diaspora news channel with a national reach of over 2.5 million Bangladeshi viewers across America on Facebook alone, to reach those who use social media, especially older voters, as a form of staying updated on politics in New York City. Door-to-door canvassing events and physical meetings have had to be cancelled due to concerns over Covid-19, which makes keeping people’s attention challenging.
“We have to think about the best way to reach every part of our community,” said poet and activist Thahitun Mariam, who also co-founded BAPP. She said that BAPP has been collaborating with the Bronx Mutual Aid Network, a network of groups that’s been organising to support New Yorkers during the pandemic, to organize Census 2020 and voter registration table events in a safe manner. At these physical events, volunteers can engage with voters on a more personal level.
“The Bangladeshi community are largely working class folks, and we have to not only think about the language of our messaging but on which medium we’re reaching them,” said Mariam.
Shareable content
For those who are active on social media, shareable content is a major source of information.
BAPP and other mobilisation groups have even taken WhatsApp forwards into consideration. Groups like Indians for Biden have shareable graphics, and They See Blue, a group supporting the Democratic party and dedicated to increasing South Asian civic engagement, have been sending postcards and holding sign waving rallies.
“They See Blue in Georgia has spent the past 4 months writing postcards. We’ve also been phone and text banking since the end of the summer, and have probably sent several thousands of texts and made thousands of phone calls to voters,” said journalist and former attorney Anjali Enjeti, who also co-founded the Georgia chapter of They See Blue.
She estimates they have sent around 7,000 postcards in the last four months, and made at least 1,500 calls in the last week alone. TSB has twenty chapters across the country — the Georgia chapter was founded in August 2019 and has 400 members alone.
“Many of these phone calls are to South Asian voters in Georgia. We have been very intentional about reaching out directly to our community, because we find they are very responsive to us when we call – they ask more questions about voting, and they’re less likely to hang up when they know they’re talking to another South Asian,” she told Scroll.in.
“The great thing is that our community is organically mobilised,” said Varun Nikore, the president of the AAPI Victory Fund, focused on mobilising Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, which includes Indian-Americans. “Trump’s election galvanised so many communities, and now there are so many groups that are a product of a post-2016 United States.”
Informal networks
Groups like They See Blue, Desis United, and Asian Americans Against Trump are just a few of such groups. There are also more informal networks, like the “Chitthi Brigade,” a political sisterhood of Indian-American women across the US who share information and updates on their WhatsApp group.
According to a recent poll, 72% of registered Indian American voters plan to vote for Biden, and a post-election survey from 2016 shows that a higher number of Bangladeshi (90%) and Pakistani Americans (88%) voted Democrat when compared to Indian Americans.
Since an overwhelming percentage of the South Asian community is inclined towards voting blue, there are a larger number of South Asian interest groups mobilising on the left to support the Biden-Harris ticket. In October, prominent desi celebrities and influencers like Mindy Kaling, Padma Lakshmi and Lilly Singh came together for a Democratic fundraising event called the South Asian Block Party, as well as a voting PSA.
In Georgia, Enjeti says They See Blue has focused on driving out the Democratic vote, and not converting Republican voters. “Driving out the Democratic vote gives us more bang for our buck and we really do have enough Democratic South Asian voters in Georgia to flip this state blue,” she said.
AAPI Victory Fund is following a similar strategy in Texas. “It is likely that we’re on pace to doubling Asian American turnout in Texas when compared to 2016,” said Nikore. “We knew this was coming, because we saw record-level engagement in the midterm election, and so we wanted to be ready for it and gambled on a state like Texas,” he added, referring to the fact that Texas, where there is a significant Indian American population, is a Republican stronghold.
“We have not seen this level of turnout in the history of our country for our community, and now we’re going to be recognised as a community that’s worthy of investment,” said Nikore.
Mariam stresses that GOTV work is important beyond just the elections, and is necessary to involve immigrants in American civic life.
“At the end of the day, we’re not doing this work around a particular election cycle,” she said. “Yes, this is a historic election, but we’re trying to create systematic change.”
Clarification: The story has been updated to reflect the time period over which They See Blue sent out 7,000 post cards.
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