AAFF

The Asian American Federation of Florida (AAFF) is a 501(c)(3) coalition that aims to unity and collaboration among the various Asian Pacific American organizations and to improve the relationship of a culturally diverse Asian Pacific American community in Florida. The AAFF is a statewide organization made up of more than 70 Bangladesh, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Iranian, Korean, Laotian, Taiwanese, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese community-based organizations, businesses and media.

Asian American Federation of Florida - APIA Vote Report

Summary

AAFF mobilized voters throughout the whole state, having partners and networks in key locations to ensure full access. Their work was widespread and reached many. Due to certain Florida laws, they primarily focused on voter education and engagement. Because of this narrow focus, they were highly successful in engaging and educating APIA voters across the state. They also helped their partners further their work by registering voters and doing voter protection work.

The Numbers

1,000 voters registered in Miami-Dade and Orlando area
6,000 GOTV postcards mailed
Thousands of phone calls made
Approximately 50,000 reached for voter education through social media
15,925 total reached for voter education through physical communication
5,000 emailed about election language protection hotline
12,568 voter education material distributed through partner organizations
10,976 GOTV materials distributed at events through partners
5,600 GOTV materials distributed through online communications
150 GOTV large posters distributed
8 newspapers featured AAFF’s ads
Approximately 900 viewers on YouTube for GOTV
Approximately 70,000 reached through ethnic newspaper ads
Approximately 18,000 reached through ethnic radio ads

Strategy

Voter Engagement

AAFF engaged voters through a widespread media campaign that educated voters and encouraged them to vote. However, due to Florida law concerning voter registration by third party organizations, they were not able to register voters. Thus, they focused on education and GOTV. They partnered with many organizations throughout the state that helped them table at numerous events, such as dragonboat races, Diwali, Moon Festival, concerts, movie nights, as well as Disney World. They also hosted several presidential debate viewing parties in order to encourage more civic engagement. They also partnered with AALDEF to do exit polling and run a language protection hotline. This exit poll was the first of its kind for APIA people in Florida. They heavily pushed their GOTV campaigns, reaching a very wide audience.

Communications

AAFF created numerous communication material in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean and distributed them through events, ethnic newspapers, ethnic radio, ethnic television, social media, and other online channels. With their local partners, they attended many events across the state, at which they distributed physical communication materials. They also phone banked, canvassed, mailed post cards, did email blasts, and social media blasts. They put ads in ethnic newspapers and radio steadily through a three month period. Numerous different newspapers and radio stations featured their GOTV ads weekly September to November. Their very widespread and thorough communications influenced a great number of APIA voters to turn out and register and vote.

Human Resource

AAFF’s voter mobilization campaign was fully volunteer driven. They recruited from events they attended and their partner organizations. They generally recruited high school students. These volunteers were trained in an easy-to-understand orientation. The volunteers and partner organizations planned their communications strategy and was vital for its execution. These volunteers were the backbone of the entire communication and voter engagement strategy. They tabled, phone banked, canvassed, and mailed post cards.

Lessons and Challenges

Voter Engagement and Communication

The Florida state law limiting third party organizations from registering voters prevented AAFF from doing much voter registration work. However, they focused their efforts more on education and encouraging voters to register through official channels instead. They realized the APIA population in the state is very spread out and not concentrated in metropolitan areas, so for the upcoming elections, they want to build even more coalitions and partnerships across the state. For the future, they would like to translate voter education materials in more languages, such as Thai and Hindi. They also would like to come up with shorter and more direct catchphrases that can be easily translated.

Human Resource

They forewent hiring staff due to time and financial constraints, but they still succeeded in their voter mobilization campaign with only volunteers. Instead of staff, they focused primarily on empowering local partners to conduct on-the-ground work and coordination.