Civic Engagement Research on Immigrants

Seattle Votes

We worked with Latino Decisions to develop and launch the Seattle Votes Survey campaign, which anonymously collected civic engagement data from 5,566 immigrant and refugee residents, the first such data for any city in the U.S. and one of the largest data sets in the country. The reports and links to data are below:

Report on the entire dataset:
Seattle Votes Survey Results: Immigrant Civic Engagement in Seattle-King County

Reports disaggregated by immigrant/refugee community subsets:
Seattle Votes Survey Results: Asian American Community

Seattle Votes Survey Results: East African Community

Seattle Votes Survey Results: Latino Community 
NOTE: As of June 4, 2018, the Latino Community report is revised from the original version. Tania Hino's interview contained incorrect information in the original report.

Seattle Votes Slideshow Presentation:
OIRA Presentation Seattle Votes 2018 FINAL.pdf

(To download any of the above documents, right-click, then select, "Save link as..." and then save to your computer.)

Seattle Votes Survey raw data:
data.seattle.gov/Community/Seattle-Votes-Survey-Data-from-5-224-immigrant-and/y5cf-gy2p

Jump to a section to learn more about the Seattle Votes Survey campaign:

Seattle Votes Survey Project FAQ

Seattle Votes Partner Organizations

2015 Immigrant Voting Task Force Report

Seattle Votes Survey Campaign

The Seattle Votes Survey campaign was a community outreach and engagement campaign to identify and better document the barriers to civic engagement for Seattle's immigrant and refugee residents. By partnering with hundreds of organizations, thousands of Seattle-King County immigrants and refugees shared with us their habits related to voting and civic engagement. The findings are informing policies to improve naturalization rates, voter registration numbers, and voting rates.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

1. Why did we do a survey?

Better information will result in better policies. In 2015, the Immigrant Voting Rights Task Force released a report with recommendations for city and regional governments. Both must adopt policies to improve the naturalization, registration, and voting rates of immigrant and refugee residents. One of the recommendations was the need for better data about immigrant and refugee voters. The Task Force was comprised of immigrant and refugee leaders appointed by Mayor Ed Murray and Mayor Mike McGinn. The Immigrant Voting Rights Task Force report is available below.

2. What was the Seattle Votes Survey?

The Seattle Votes Survey was a research tool to help us understand barriers to civic engagement (naturalization, voter registration, and voting) for immigrant and refugee residents. We took great steps to ensure that survey responses could not be traced back to an individual. It took an average of 10 minutes to complete the survey.

The survey was available in English, Spanish, Chinese (Traditional), Vietnamese, Korean, Somali, Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya, and Arabic. Thanks to community support, we were also able to generate additional paper surveys in Filipino/Tagalog, Indonesian, and Khmer/Cambodian.

The print-versions of the surveys were for downloading, printing, and filling out with a pen/pencil. (Right-click, then select, "Save link as..." and save to your computer.)
PLEASE NOTE: the surveys below print on legal sized paper (8.5" x 14").

• English
• Español (Spanish)
• 中國語文 (Traditional Chinese)
• Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
• 한국어 (Korean)
• Tagalog (Filipino/Tagalog)
• አማርኛ (Amharic)
  
• Af-Soomaali (Somali)
• العربية (Arabic)
• Oromo
• ትግርኛ (Tigrigna)
  
• Indonesian
  
• ភាសាខ្មែរ (Khmer/Cambodian)

3. Who was the intended audience of the survey?

The survey was intended for voting-age immigrant and refugee residents of Seattle-King County. Survey-takers must have been born outside of the United States AND be at least 18 years of age. If individuals were born in the United States OR were younger than 18 years of age, they should not have filled out the survey.

4. What data is helpful to improve immigrant and refugee resident civic engagement rates?

We lacked quality data on numerous issues. We wanted to know the following:

• Language needs of eligible voters.
• Literacy levels of eligible English language learner voters.
• Number of eligible English language learner voters.
• Turnout of English language learner voters.
• The use of ballot drop boxes in past and current locations.

5. Why did organizations support Seattle Votes?

Immigrant and refugee residents are a growing and increasingly influential population. But, our civic engagement rates lag behind other groups. As a result, we are not part of decisions that affect our livelihood and our families. With so much at stake in every election - jobs, education, immigration reform, and more - it's important for immigrant and refugee residents to become citizens, register to vote, and vote.

Also, the lack of immigrant and refugee voter data makes it difficult for city and elections leaders to understand what is needed to serve all Seattle residents. As members and supporters of immigrant and refugee communities, we have an opportunity to collect this data ourselves.

6. How did partner organizations and individuals help Seattle Votes?

Organizations and individuals helped to distribute the surveys to community members and constituents. You can learn more at the Seattle Votes Partner Toolkit here.

7. Was funding available for organizations to do outreach?

We had a very limited budget for Seattle Votes and were unable to sponsor or compensate organizations to participate in Seattle Votes. This project was built on our simple mission: to improve the lives of Seattle's immigrant and refugee residents.

8. What partner organizations and media partners helped with the Seattle Votes campaign?

Seattle Votes Partner Organizations