Which Brooklyn Neighborhoods Have the Lowest Voter Turnout?
Asian-American Neighborhoods
While the predominately Latino parts of Sunset Park, those surrounding Fifth Avenue, boasted low voter turnout for mayor, so did the rest of Sunset Park, extending east into the predominately Asian areas: just 5-8 percent of the adult citizens in these census tracts voted in 2009. And, as the demographic’s booming population has led to the Asian population moving in great numbers into surrounding neighborhoods like Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, so too is voter turnout in these areas similarly low: just 10-15 percent. This could also, like with Latinos, be an example of recent immigrants lacking the cultural infrastructure that encourages voting. It might also be because Asian-Americans, compared to other racial groups, are less engaged by politicians both because their numbers are smaller and because their cultures more heterogenous than Latinos. “Koreans and Chinese and Vietnamese aren’t necessarily more or less fractured than Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and Cubans,” Slate suggested. “But, unlike Latinos, they speak different languages,” which means they are harder to reach by advertising. Asians also don’t have a unified district in Brooklyn, which some have suggested disenfranchises them and maybe cools them on the electoral process.