Hunter College, CUNY Asian American Studies Program
Presents
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008 Time: 3PM to 5PM
Place: Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue, Manhattan
Lang Recital Hall, Hunter North 424
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED.
Asian Americans are a growing segment of the electorate. Although more Asian Americans are voting, candidates as well as the news media have overlooked the Asian American vote. In addition, like other minority voters in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, Asian Americans have had to overcome a series of obstacles to exercise their right to vote. A number of recent lawsuits filed under the Voting Rights Act and United States Constitution seek to protect Asian American voters. This presentation will survey Asian American political opinions, discuss the Voting Rights Act’s requirement for language assistance, and explore ways that local activists can defend against anti-Asian voter disenfranchisement.
Presenter: Glenn D. Magpantay, Staff Attorney, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (www.aaldef.org)
Magpantay has represented Asian Americans in high profile voting rights cases including US v. Boston, Civ. 05-11598 WGY (D. Mass. 2005), which resulted in Boston’s first-ever bilingual ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese, and Chinatown Voter Education Alliance v. Ravitz, 06-Civ-913 NRB (S.D.N.Y. 2006), an action against the New York City Board of Elections for compliance with the Language Assistance Provisions (Section 203) of the Voting Rights Act for Chinese and Korean assistance.
Magpantay oversees AALDEF’s Asian American Election Projection efforts in fifteen states across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. In 2004, he coordinated the nation’s largest exit poll of Asian Americans surveying over 11,000 voters in 23 cities.
Magpantay has published scholarly legal articles, authored a number of reports, and has given commentary to numerous media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, CNN, and National Public Radio on the Voting Rights Act, bilingual ballots, redistricting, and Asian American voting patterns and political opinions.
He currently teaches the Race & the Law at Rutgers School of Law – Newark and a clinical seminar on Individual Rights and Representation at Brooklyn Law School. He serves as a Commissioner to the New York City Voter Assistance Commission and as a Steering Committee member of the Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY).
Magpantay attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook on Long Island, and graduated cum laude from New England School of Law in Boston – after being admitted as an affirmative action beneficiary.
Sponsored by
Hunter College Asian American Studies Program
CUNY Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI)
A.S.I.A. (Asian Students In Action)
Online Notes:
