On a conference call Wednesday, American Justice Center president Mee Moua said that the Asian-American community has nearly doubled in the U.S. since 2000, and while the largest number of Asians reside in California, Hawaii and New York as an overall percentage, the demographic is growing in a number of other states, including Nevada, Virginia and Florida.
Asian American Federation of Florida president Winnie Tang says her organization is all about increasing the registration and participation of Asians voting in Florida this year. She said there are over 275,000 eligible Asians to vote in the state now.
The survey involved interviewing 1,100 Asian-American and Pacific Islander registered voters nationwide, and was conducted April 5-15 by live telephone interview in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. 713 of those polled were from Nevada, Illinois, Virginia and Florida. Pollster Celinda Lake said that Asians are more divided politically in Florida than in the rest of the nation, where 53 percent describe themselves as being registered Democrat.
One of the most interesting discoveries in the polling is that Florida Asians are more negative than their brethren across the nation. Nationally, 37 percent believe the nation is going on the right track, while 47 percent say it's going the wrong way.
In Florida those numbers more than double, with just 20 percent believing everything is going while 62 percent say it's not.
Asian-Americans have been called the stealth swing vote of the 2012 election, yet a recent poll shows that this demographic is still largely ignored when compared with other U.S. ethnic groups.
The survey, conducted by the Democratic-leaning Lake Research Partners, shows that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are more politically divided in Florida than in other states, with 46 percent listing themselves as Democrats, 33 percent Republicans, and 20 percent independents.
In the Sunshine State, Asians support President Obama by a 57-29 percent margin over Mitt Romney, but that's a smaller lead for the incumbent than in a national survey, where Obama leads the former Massachusetts Governor 59-13.
According to 2008 exit polling, Obama won Asian-Americans by garnering 62 percent against John McCain's 35 percent.
