How Voting Rights Activists Transformed Georgia
Grassroots groups helped turn out a record number of voters
Growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant in Georgia, Quynh Nguyen saw firsthand the barriers that can prevent foreign-born Americans from participating in the electoral process. “My mom and dad speak English,” she says, “but not well enough to understand that there’s a website where they can check their voter registration status.”
Nguyen has devoted her career to helping members of her community navigate the voting system. She spent the past year working as the civic engagement coordinator for Asian Americans Advancing Justice–Atlanta, a nonprofit focused on boosting voter turnout, first in the presidential election and now in Georgia’s two January 5 Senate runoff races.
“The biggest issue of voter suppression in the Asian American community is the lack of language resources,” Nguyen says. “That’s where we come in, translating these materials into different languages and posting them up on social media and leaving literature on people’s doors.”
