APIAVOTE JOINS DIVERSE COALITION IN ISSUING NEW REPORT ON EXECUTIVE ORDER 14019 TO PROMOTE VOTING ACCESS

WASHINGTON D.C. – Christine Chen, Executive Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, issued the following statement after a coalition of diverse organizations issued a new report on Biden’s 2021 Executive Order focused on expanding voting access through federal agencies.

Today, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) joined a diverse coalition of 53 organizations in issuing a new report – “Strengthening Democracy: A Progress Report on Federal Agency Action to Promote Access to Voting.” This report assesses how certain federal agencies have responded to President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order. to increase access to voting. As we continue to see state bills being introduced that would make voting more difficult for many in our communities, the report underscores the importance and urgency of fully implementing the Executive Order.

“Of the 10 federal agencies that were evaluated in the report,” Christine Chen, Executive Director of APIAVote stated, “We are especially interested in seeing additional progress coming from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, since they are well positioned to provide new citizens with access to high-quality voter registration services through their naturalization ceremonies. We also want to see the General Services Administration do more to maintain and improve its website Vote.gov to be more user-friendly and to further its language accessibility by expanding beyond its currently available 12 languages.”

“Protecting our democracy is part of the fundamental mission for our federal government. Improving access to voting by promoting and helping eligible people to register to vote is a key step in that direction. President Biden declared his vision through this Executive Order. Now is the time for federal agencies to follow through.”