The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) recently released preliminary results from its 2008 General Election Asian American exit poll. Check it out here.

Various Blaaagers and members of the Columbia Asian American Alliance were poll monitors for AALDEF on November 4th. We were assigned to various locations, among them Queens, Brooklyn, and, in my case, Philadelphia. After twelve hours of monitoring, some of us became delusional, others suffered caffeine induced seizures. My favorite experience that day involves a drunk voter at my poll site who enjoyed calling everyone "Chiquita".

Nothing, however, will ever be on the same level as an encounter I had at a Chinatown poll site during the 2007 Democratic Primary. I asked a voter what his ethnicity was for the survey, and this was our conversation:

Me: What is your ethnicity, Sir?
Voter: Sexy.
Me: Um, could you specify?
Voter: I am sexy.
Me: Okay...

Perhaps readers of the Blaaag (yes, all THREE of you out there in cyberworld) will be motivated to volunteer with AALDEF in the next election, so they, too, can be harassed. It's partly offensive, partly amusing, and TOTALLY EMPOWERING!

Although our layout is still a little fritzy and I have six minutes until Intro to Asian American Studies begins, I just had to give a little update on poll monitoring with AALDEF this magnificent Super Tuesday.

AALDEF poll monitoring exists in the aim of protecting the voting rights of Asian Americans from the subtle but palpable discrimination that can sometimes result in the voting process.

Marilla and I were stationed at Flushing's Taiwan Center on Main Street, and though its name connotes a community mecca for Taiwanese Americans, the people we saw turn out were mostly Korean American. Surprising, for us - not counting the fact that Northern Blvd. is very Korean-populated. We probably observed and conducted twenty exit polls, and they all happened to show votes for Democratic nominees, save one, but erroneously - a paper error. (It's being reported.) The people we saw turn out were mostly elderly, with the exception of one 19-24 woman.

These are just facts. In our observation, the polling in the Taiwan Center was definitely smooth, with sufficient translators (Chinese and Korean) and a diverse set of poll workers. In this Asian ethnic enclave, the polling operated well from my observation... And while the morning was a bit slow, I hope to see more voters in my 6-9 shift tonight.

If you haven't yet, go out and vote! ... Okay, I'm definitely late for this class.