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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Asian Pacific Groups Reach Out to Diverse Demographic Before Election

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Tuesday, October 11, 2016   

PORTLAND, Ore. – With the election one month away, Oregonians who identify as Asian or Pacific Islanders are urging their quarter million compatriots to vote.

Jenny Kim, founder of the Korean American Coalition of Oregon, said her organization is one of the many partnering with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), to hold events to register and engage voters.

According to Kim, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander demographic in Oregon is made up of many diverse groups.

"The Asian population is so large with so many different languages and culture that it's impossible, I think, for one organization to reach out to all of them," she explained. "So it makes sense for us to collaborate and work together so that we network and try to augment the work that we're doing individually as a group."

APANO aims to register 6,000 voters for this year's election. Voters in Oregon have until Oct. 18 to register to vote and ballots will be mailed out next Wednesday.

Chau Nguyen, who is on the steering committee of the Pacific and Asian Community Alliance in Eugene, said many elderly members of Asian communities often struggle to vote because of language barriers. And she said engaging the wider population on electoral topics other than the presidential election, such as ballot measure 97 of which APANO is a leading advocate, can be tricky.

"When people can connect the measures with things that affect them pretty close to the heart, to their families, they of course, are definitely interested," she said. "And we provide them resources like: 'Here's where you can read more,' and also just being available to them, you know? If you want to talk more about this with us, here's our contact information."

Kim said her organization has to overcome some cultural barriers to get ballots to Korean-Americans.

"The problem is a lot of Korean-American immigrants sometimes don't realize that they have to register to vote because, in Korea, you don't have to register," she added. "So, the the concept of registering so that you can vote is foreign to them."

She said Oregon's new motor voter law, which automatically registers people who renew or apply for licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), has been a big help.


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