For Immediate Release
April 25, 2019

Cleveland, OH – Elaine Tso, Interim Co-CEO of Asian Services In Action, Inc. (ASIA, Inc.), testified today, Thursday, April 25, in a field hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Elections of the House Administration Committee. The hearing was one of a series of field hearings on voting rights and election administration. The Subcommittee has held similar hearings in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and North Dakota.

Tso testified that barriers to voting have a disproportionate impact on citizens who are immigrants and refugees, particularly those with limited proficiency in English.

ASIA, Inc. has engaged in civic engagement work in immigrant and refugee communities since 2012. That work has included conducting programs that explain the American government and elections to newly arrived immigrants and refugees, registering citizens to vote and encouraging participation in the political process. Tso based her testimony on that work, as well as ASIA, Inc.’s general experience serving refugee and immigrant communities.

“The field hearings were an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the particular challenges to voting that citizens who have arrived here as refugees or immigrants face,” Tso said. “ASIA, Inc. supports policies that open the electoral process to all citizens, including those with limited English proficiency.

In her testimony, Tso discussed barriers to voting including voter roll purging, difficulty registering and the general underfunding of Ohio’s electoral system.

The hearing, which was held at the Cuyahoga Community College, also featured Naila Awan of Demos, Mike Bricker of All Voting Is Local, Daniel Ortiz of Policy Matters Ohio and Tom Roberts of the Ohio Conference of the NAACP.

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