Wing Luke Asian Museum exhibit to feature voter registration drive

Community members call for affordable housing, early 1970s.

Photo credit: Wing Luke Asian Museum Collection

In collaboration with the Wing Luke Asian Museum and community organization volunteers, King County Elections will be on hand to register voters at the opening of a new art exhibit chronicling local civic engagement and voting rights.

The exhibit titled "Our Voice...Our Democracy: Civic Engagement in the Asian Pacific Islander American Community" examines voting and civic engagement in the Asian Pacific Islander American community. It will open on Election Day, Aug. 19 at the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

King County Elections will be on-site with volunteers at the museum at 719 South King Street in Seattle at the following times:

• Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

King County Elections will have bilingual Chinese-speaking staff available to assist and register voters and answer questions about new accessible voting options.

This exhibit is a collaboration between community members and partners, including the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Seattle, OneAmerica, Raise Our Asian Pacific American Representation (ROAR) and King County Elections.

Learn more about the exhibit at www.wingluke.org.

Background
King County is required by Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act to produce all election materials in both English and Chinese. In addition to providing translated materials, King County employs a full-time Chinese translation staff as well as bilingual poll workers to assist voters. This federal law requires counties to provide language assistance if more than 5 percent of voting age citizens in a jurisdiction are members of a single-language minority group who do not "speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process."