With California’s March 5 primary quickly approaching, several community organizations across Fresno County are ready to help voters with a range of issues such as confirming their registration status, finding a ballot drop-off or obtaining translation assistance.
Primary elections historically attract fewer voters than the fall general elections, particularly voters who may need extra support because they speak a foreign language or are voting for the first time, such as young voters or new citizens.
As one of the most diverse communities in California, it’s important that all parts of Fresno County are represented at the ballot box, according to community organizers with several nonprofits.
“When communities don’t come out to vote, you can see that reflected in the school board, city council and board of supervisors,” said Deanna Kitamura, an attorney and program manager with the Asian Law Caucus.
“They don’t show the diversity of the jurisdictions themselves. Not only do they not reflect it in terms of the makeup of the elected bodies, but also in terms of the policies that those individuals support or oppose.”
ALC, a civil rights organization dedicated to serving low-income Asian-Pacific American communities, will monitor polls on March 5 in Fresno County and 19 other counties. The state’s largest nonpartisan poll-monitoring program, it trains volunteers to observe polling locations to ensure voters have a smooth and easy voting process.
“For example, they are making sure that the languages and translated materials that are required by law are up and posted and visible to use,” Kitamura said. “If it’s not going smoothly, they would report it to us and we would contact election officials depending on what it is.”
In the June 2022 primary election, ALC reported that at least 38% (549 out of 1,428) election workers across 15 counties in Northern and Central California were bilingual in languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi, Korean, Japanese, Hmong, Telugu, Assyrian, Gujarati, Khmer, Tamil, Urdu, Burmese, and Mien. These election workers were counted by ALC during their poll monitoring in efforts to ensure adequate support for non-English speaking voters.
Katie Moua, programs director for Hmong Innovating Politics, a Sacramento-based community-organizing group, said it can be hard for would-be voters to feel informed about the primary ballot, even if language is not an issue.
“Voters might feel they don’t have the knowledge they want in order to make the best decisions on candidates, propositions and measures,” Moua said in an email sent to Fresnoland. “Especially during the primary, when parties can have so many candidates and there’s so much information to digest and take into consideration.”
Hmong Innovating Politics is one of several nonprofit organizations with offices in Fresno that are offering to assist anyone who may need help with voting. Faith in the Valley and The Fresno Center also are available to answer questions.
Moua noted that her organization hopes “to organize and turn out the Hmong and Southeast Asian American progressive voter bloc, achieve wins in key policy areas and shift the tides of governing power for racial, gender, trans, queer, and youth justice.”
“We want to ensure that the local governments continue to center youth voices and are meeting the needs of our youth in Fresno,” Moua said.
In the past, she said, it has been hard to mobilize young voters, who are less likely to respond to the group’s calls or canvassing efforts.
“This election year, we are deeply concerned that young voters will not turn out to vote because they are disenfranchised by our government,” Moua said.
Hmong Innovating Politics has found that one thing that helps motivate voters is to share their message with entire households, not just individual voters.
“Voting needs to be a shared family activity and not just for one person to participate,” Moua said. “We see the tremendous opportunity to turn out whole households.”
Kitamura of Asian Law Caucus agrees there’s a benefit to making voting a shared family activity, particularly as a way for younger family members to be motivated to become future voters.
“When a family votes together, it is more likely to happen,” said Kitamura. “It also shows the kids how important voting is and they get to see that their parents voted with pride. It can be a great learning activity for them and encourage them to be voters in the future.”
Alexandra Alvarado, a community organizer with Faith in the Valley, a faith-based organizing group based in Stockton, says it takes more than just educating people in order to get them to go out and vote.
“Building community and building trust relationships with the community to have open conversations is what we hope to do,” Alvarado said during an interview with Fresnoland.
“Getting people registered to vote is not enough,” she said. “Getting them comfortable with their ballot and having conversations with the community and aligning that with their values is what we concentrate on.”
At The Fresno Center, a community-service nonprofit, staff are able to answer questions about voting, said Porchoua Her, senior coordinator for the center’s immigration program. The center, located on Kings Canyon Road in southeast Fresno, has a drop-off box for anyone to turn in their vote-by-mail ballots.
“Anyone who can come into the office that needs assistance with voting. We can help,” Her said.
How you can vote
California sent vote-by-mail ballots to all active registered voters in early February and county elections offices have placed ballot drop-off boxes at various locations. Voting registration closed on Feb. 20, but eligible citizens can still cast a conditional ballot through the state’s Same Day Voter Registration program. More than 30 polling places in Fresno County will be open for voting.
In Fresno, several nonprofit organizations are working to remind voters to take part in the primary election. In 2022, only 27% of eligible Fresno County voters cast ballots in the primary compared to 44% in that fall’s general election.
Californians can check their voter registration status here and learn more about how to vote in the primary election with Fresnoland’s voter guide.
Correction: This story was updated on March 6, 2024, to correct that ALC counted election workers across 15 counties. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the organization had deployed these workers.
