Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) is a left-of-center voter turnout organization that receives financial support from leading left-of-center grant makers like the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and NEO Philanthropy. ^{[1] [2] [3]} The organization supports left-of-center policy initiatives such as the elimination of photo ID requirements for voting and President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending proposals. ^{[4] [5]}

History

APIAVote was originally a project of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), which advocates for the social, political, and economic advancement of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Now formally known as “OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates,” OCA supports removing English proficiency and education level standards for immigration, eliminating voter identification requirements, and race-based affirmative action in college admissions. ^{[6] [7]}

OCA launched APIAVote in 1996 to increase AAPI voter participation. In that first election cycle, APIAVote established a telephone hotline and ran targeted voter registration television ads. ^[8]

In 2004, the Ford Foundation gave APIAVote a  $150,000 grant designated for strategic planning and the evaluation of Asian American Pacific Islander voter outreach activities. ^{[9] [10]}

APIAVote spun off in 2007 as a separate entity with former OCA executive director Christine Chen as its first executive director. Under Chen’s leadership, APIAVote partnered with Comcast-Time Warner’s “Our Time to Vote” campaign for the 2008 election cycle and received a grant from the Comcast Foundation to hire staff for communications and voter outreach, as part of the cable giant’s “get out the vote” efforts targeting minority voters. ^[11]

In every presidential election year since 2008, APIAVote has hosted a presidential town hall event with candidates and their campaign surrogates. ^[12] The organization utilizes its Alliance for Civic Engagement network across 28 states to conduct grassroots voter contact and engagement programs through phone banking, targeted mail, door-to-door canvassing, and media advertising. ^[13]

Policy and Political Positions

APIAVote opposes measures to ensure election integrity, such as photo identification requirements, restrictions on mail-in voting, and maintaining up-to-date voter registration rolls. ^[14] Furthermore, APIAVotes has called on Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which prohibits states from enacting voter ID requirements or purging voter registration rolls, restores voting rights to felons, and mandates mail-in voting. ^[15] The legislation would also undo the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which overturned “preclearance” requirements under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ^[16]

APIAvote has publicly endorsed several policy initiatives and decisions by the Biden administration, including the Build Back Better Act, legislation that authorizes $1.75 trillion in government social spending. ^[17] Also, in early 2022, APIAVote’s executive director, Christine Chen, issued a statement celebrating the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson. ^[18]

“Disinformation” monitoring is one of APIAVote’s major initiatives. ^[19] According to a guide on confronting disinformation published on the group’s website, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are targeted for disinformation by American news outlets as well as bad actors based in Russia, China, and Vietnam. The guide lists anti-affirmative action, COVID-19 and vaccine disinformation, 2020 election conspiracy theories, anti-critical race theory, and anti-communist and anti-socialist narratives as common themes directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. As a strategy for detecting disinformation, the guide suggests Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders remain skeptical of content disseminated from right-of-center news outlets, and provides specific examples of the Daily Wire, Human Events, and Fox News. ^[20]

Leadership

Christine Chen is the founder and executive director of APIAVote. Prior to helping found APIAVote, she was the national executive director of the OCA. ^[21] Chen has held board positions with several left-of-center organizations including the National Task Force on Election Crises, which called for the removal of President Donald Trump from office after the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021 and supported “wide-scale voting by mail” in the 2020 presidential election. ^{[22] [23] [24]} She has also sat on the boards of Demos, a New York City-based think tank that has endorsed the Green New Deal, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which has opposed identification requirements for voters who register by mail. ^{[25] [26]}

Kevin Hirano is APIAVote’s Director of Operations and Development. Hirano was previously a major gifts officer at Open Society Institute Baltimore. ^[27]

Bob Sakanaawa is APIAVote’s Director of Policy and Advocacy. ^[28] Sakaniwa has worked on the staffs of former U.S. Reps. Mike Honda (D-CA) and Walter Tucker (D-CA). ^[29]

Raymond Partolan is APIAVote’s National Field Director. An immigration policy activist, Partolan once sued the University System of Georgia for not granting in-state tuition benefits to non-American citizens who were resident in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. ^[30]

Financials

In 2018, APIAVote received $2,343,649 in contributions, an increase of $1,551,323 over the previous year. ^[31] Between 2018 and 2019, the organization reported $324,000 in grant disbursements to other nonprofit organizations earmarked for “get out the vote activities.” ^[32] APIAvote only received $357,089 in contributions in 2019, but continued making grant payments with revenues carried over from the previous year. ^{[33] [34]} At the end of 2019, APIAVote reported $1,009,948 in net assets. ^[35]

In 2019 and 2020, APIAVote received grants of $125,250 and $175,000 from NEO Philanthropy, a fiscal clearinghouse for left-of-center causes. ^{[36] [37]}

In 2022, APIAVote announced the receipt of $1.2 million in new funding from Open Society Foundations, Public Wise, Stand with Asian Americans, and TDW+Co. ^[38]