NEW YORK: The Association of Americans for Civic Responsibility (AACR) kicked off its Fifth Annual Conference on April 23 with the most relevant topic of the time "Voter participation – The Ultimate Civic Responsibility".
The event was held in collaboration with The Maxwell School of Syracuse University at its Paul Greenberg House at Woodley Park, Washington DC. The conference drew representatives from Democratic and Republican National Committees, academia, government, and corporations and civic leaders.
Chad Tragakis, Senior Vice President of Hill & Knowlton, one of the largest public relations companies, and Chairman of AACR Committee on Institutional Civic Responsibility, who moderated the First Panel affirmed the institutional responsibility to ensure maximum public participation in exercising the civic responsibility of voting with following recommendations: * Every sector has a role to play; * Encouraging the importance of voting needs to be taught at an early age; * Voter participation must be sustained and made local, personal, and relevant; * And reminders to vote are most pertinent and can be disseminated in a variety of methods.
For the second segment of the conference, Dr. Michael Schneider, Director of Maxwell-Washington International Relations program and Chairman of AACR’s Advisory Committee moderated the panel which concluded that: * Since a majority of the developing world is under the age of 25, developing countries are faced with a huge electoral challenge. * The multimedia can be a challenge and an asset. * There needs to be civic education outside the school system (K-12) * Compulsory voting may not be effective in the United States.
The luncheon speaker Frank Mickiewicz, Vice Chairman, Hill & Knowlton and former Press Secretary to Late Senator Robert Kennedy espoused the need for more informed electorate. He expressed concern on too much dependence by the young and new voters on the bloggers and opinionated news outlets. Joseph Melookaran, former Commissioner of President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and AACR Advisory Board Member, moderated the third and final session.
The participants included Dr. Piyush Agrawal, National Coordinator of GOPIO (Global Organization of People of Indian Origin) and Parag Mehta, Director of Training, Democratic National Committee among others. The discussion centered on the increasing voter participation by immigrant voters and young voters. All panelists recognized the positive effect of the current election cycle in the enhanced excitement and need for more outreach using innovative mediums.
The panelists agreed that the traditional influence of news media is weakening and new mediums like blogging, text messaging and celebrity centered events are getting more traction. Dr. Piyush Agrawal highlighted the roles played by the Indian American organizations in bringing the Indian Americans to the mainstream political process.
"The law-abiding Asian Indians who are committed to playing by the book have carried this torch of civic responsibility in voting in the democratic society like ours in an honorable and productive manner" Dr. Agrawal said. He listed accomplishments from the first Indian American Congressman Dilip Singh Saund to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Satveer Chaudhury (MN), Kumar Barve (MD), Upendra Chivukula (NJ), Swati Dandekar (IA), Nikki Haley (SC), Raj Goyle (KS), and Jay Goyal (OH) in between as the testimony of the steadily progressing political participation.
Concluding this most lively discussion Joseph Melookaran acknowledged that the rate of increase in the voter participation from immigrant voters does not match up with the fast increase in their respective population. Actual voting percentages in Asian and Latino communities are lagging behind the majority community and African Americans. "Last election cycle over one million more Latino voters could have voted and over half million Asian Americans could have voted," he said.
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