MAJOR Findings
The Asian-surname voter turnout in the Harris County, Texas 2020 Presidential Election was 66%. That is a significant increase compared to the 47% turnout in 2016 and 44% in 2012.
Approximately, 84,139 Asian surname voters cast ballots in the 2020 election, compared to 48,821 in 2016, and 38,312 in 2012.
Methodology
The raw official Harris County Voter Registration Roll and Harris County Voter Roster files for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 November Elections and an Asian-surname were uploaded to Microsoft Access. Queries were designed and performed to extracted the total number of Asian-surnamed registered voters, mail voters, early voter and election day voters by gender. Then, data tables were created for each election year.
The word “estimate” is utilized because surname voter analysis is not a perfect science. That is, the accuracy and exactness of the analysis is depended on the completeness of the surname list. Still, the margin of error is negligible in comparison to other methods. The presentation includes three charts: The first provides the voter turnout by gender; The second and third provide the Voting Option Asian-surname voters chose to cast a ballot in the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Harris County (TX) Presidential Elections.
NOTE: All raw election files utilized for this analysis are subject to public inspection. That is, the public can obtain the files in raw form from the election office.
ABOUT the author
Héctor de León has devoted his professional life to carrying out civic engagement initiatives via community organizations and the government with the goal of increasing voter participation. He left a non-profit civic engagement organization to join County government in 2004 and help establish the Language Assistance Program in the third largest County in the nation (Harris County). Héctor led the effort to provide voters covered by section 203 of the Voting Rights Act the information and assistance to access the voting process for over a decade.
Prior to joining the county, Hector spent 15 years working to increase Latino electoral empowerment. As regional director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointment Officials (NALEO) Ed. Fund, 1993 to 2004, Hector worked in conjunction with TMO (The Metropolitan Organization, Ft. Bend Interfaith Council, Houston Community College, Harris County of Education, Churches, schools and other CBOs organizing hundreds of workshops to help thousands of Legal Permanent Residents obtain US citizenship and incorporate into the electoral process.
In 1995, in partnership with UNIVISION Communications Inc. in Houston, Hector initiated NALEO’s annual effort to mobilize Latino voters, setting up the organization to be the preeminent non-profit civic engagement entity in Texas.
Hector’s work has been cited by media and scholars. He has participated in panel discussions on Civic Engagement, including at the renown nonprofit public policy organization The Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., via the group Do Something.
