But after weeks of early voting for Tuesday\u2019s election, the three precincts in the 25th Ward that cover Chinatown had a slow day at the polls.<\/p>\n
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Anita Lau, Democratic election judge at the 14th Precinct in the 25th Ward, said the slow turnout was predictable. \u201cAbout 45 percent of the registered voters citywide have already done early voting and it is also too cold outside,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But the challenges for voter engagement in Chinatown go beyond low turnout. As a community for immigrants, lack of citizenships is one of the key issues that made the election advocacy more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cMany times when you approached a man on the street and encouraged him to register (for voting), he would tell you he doesn\u2019t vote because he\u2019s not citizen,\u201d said Paul Yee, precinct captain for the 6th precinct. \u201cAnother reason people don\u2019t vote is they think it takes too much time.\u201d<\/p>\n These two scenarios led to an interesting scene in Chinatown: most of the voters today were seniors.<\/p>\n \u201cAmong the 150 voters today, so far, 80 percent of them are Asian-American seniors,\u201d said Katrina Herring, election judge at the 18th precinct in the 25th Ward. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t have any language barrier here. We have staff here who can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and some other Asian languages.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/DSC_8438_jpg_and_DSC_8454_jpg-300x185.png\")
<\/a>![\"King](\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/DSC_8454_jpg.png\")
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