Voting stickers are being distributed in Las Vegas at an event trying to mobilize voters from Asia and the Pacific Islands. (Rachel Janfaza/CNN)
With a live DJ and ice-cold matcha tea, organizers wowed voters new and old Tuesday afternoon at the Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event, hosted by One APIA Nevada and the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC), non-partisan sister organizations supporting Nevada’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities, was intended to bring Asian and Pacific Islander voters in the region to the polls drift, the groups said.
“The traditional narrative is that Asians always have a voting apathy,” said Eric Jeng, ACDC’s director of public relations, who, at 33, said he was the group’s oldest organizer.
“We want to break this cycle of apathy,” Jeng told CNN.
ACDC aims to educate and mobilize voters in an area where the Asian American and Pacific Islander community is growing.
A DJ will be spinning at Tuesday’s event. (Rachel Janfaza/CNN)
Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, ACDC translated impartial voter guides into five languages: Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Thai.
Ashley Hermosura, a 33-year-old Democratic voter, told CNN she knew she had to vote Tuesday because she followed One APIA on social media.
In addition to posting on social media for weeks, the group has been knocking on doors and sending text messages to encourage community members to vote.
“The Republican Party has a lot of appeal,” Hermosura said, explaining that she came out to vote for Democratic candidates backed by unions and members of the Board of Education.
Hermosura said she believes in “pulling out the Asian voice in the elections and appearing as a politically activated audience in the elections.”
Catherine Lee, who is 18 and voted in the Nevada primary, described the experience of voting for the first time as “cool.”
Lee, who voted at another event sponsored by the groups last Friday, said she was most excited about voting in the district attorney race.
“They shape outcomes that are important to addressing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system,” Lee said, describing why she found race interesting.
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