MOVE Toolkit/KRC Case Study
From Mobilize the Immigrant Vote
Korean Resource Center, Case Study of Movement-Building Electoral Organizing
Movement-Building Electoral Organizing in Orange County and Los Angeles County During the 2008 elections, the Korean Resource Center (KRC) worked in two areas with high concentrations of Korean Americans: LA County and Orange County. KRC implemented a nonpartisan electoral organizing campaign that included: voter registration at churches and markets, political education workshops in coordination with Orange County Korean American Citizens League, outreach to local ethnic media, and GOTV activities such as in-language robo calls, phone banking and precinct walking. In Orange County, KRC was able to:
- Register, educate and mobilize Korean American voters to defeat Propositions 6 & 9
- Identify these voters as “supporters”
- Through targeting and identification, build a base of supportive Korean American voters to become precinct leaders and advocates for issues important to the Korean American community.
Contents |
Voter Targeting
Through MIV and California VoterConnect, KRC accessed the Voter Activation Network (VAN) interface to create targeted voter lists. Frequent Korean American voters were targeted with phone banking and precinct walking with a goal of recruiting them as future leaders of electoral or issue campaigns. KRC chose to work in Orange County, where there is heavy anti-immigrant sentiment, and their base, Los Angeles County.
Connecting Electoral Campaigns to Issue Campaigns
KRC plans to integrate voters they identified (who agreed with their recommended position on specific ballot measures) into their membership drive outreach and future GOTV lists. Eventually, after tracking responses and turnout, KRC plans to build a “Power Vote” list of frequent and supporting Korean American voters. This list will be targeted for leadership development, political education, annual fundraisers, Legislative visits around key issue campaigns with their Representatives, and even precinct leader or member recruitment.
KRC conducted exit polling in the 2008 election which found that 78% of Korean Americans supported “Making affordable health insurance and basic medical care available to all persons, regardless of their immigration status.” This data was used in their advocacy work to highlight the strong support among Korean Americans for health insurance including immigrants. Members involved in KRC’s 2008 elections program flew to D.C. to lobby on behalf of SCHIP. On February 4, President Obama signed into law the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP), which will continue to provide health care for 7 million children and cover an additional 4 million children in need by lifting the federal five-year bar on legal immigrant children and pregnant women.
- The Korean Resource Center (KRC) was founded in 1983 to empower Korean Americans through a combination of education, social services, culture and organizing, particularly for limited English proficient and low-income community members. KRC is the local affiliate of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC). Since 1996, KRC has led nonpartisan voter education and mobilization campaigns to empower the Korean American community. Their civic participation work includes: naturalization, voter registration, voter education, Get Out the Vote (GOTV), voter assistance, voting rights advocacy and voter research.
KOREAN RESOURCE CENTER CASE STUDY REVIEW
Time Needed 15 minutes
Materials Needed
- KRC Case Study sheet, p. 20
16. Now we will review how the Korean Resource Center (KRC), in Los Angeles, conducted a movement-building electoral field campaign. Pass out the KRC Case Study handout and ask folks to take turns reading sections of the handout, or read silently.
17. As we see in this case study, KRC was very intentional in which voters they targeted for GOTV, organizing this information, merging voter lists with other lists such as membership or outreach mailing lists, and having a long-term goal of building and deepening their relationships with these voters. Newer groups shouldn’t expect to achieve everything KRC does immediately-- it’s taken KRC over a decade to get to where they’re at.
18. The example shows how electoral organizing poses a unique opportunity for organizations to contact and build relationships with registered voters and win larger issues. By continuing their political education, encouraging and tracking their voter turnout, and connecting them to an organization and its issue campaigns, you can recruit new activists and community leaders, thus strengthening the movement.
Approaches to Electoral Campaigns: a Comparison
From the PILA MIV Toolkit- Adapted from lessons shared by Western States Center and Californians for Justice
Comparing traditional movement-building approaches to electoral campaigns illustrates how elections can be used by your organizations to not only increase the involvement of immigrant communities in one election, but also a build and strengthen community power to impact long-term change.
| Traditional Approach | Movement-Building Approach |
| After election day, the campaign is over | Elections are viewed as one part of a long-term strategy for making change in our communities |
| Campaign planning often revolves around one top-down "field" strategy to register and mobilize voters | Various strategies are customized by and used in specific communities |
| Focus is on likely voters | Campaigns target unlinkely, under-represented voters and make a place for everyone, including those who are not eligible to vote. |
| Focus is on the number of contacts made, not the depth or quality of those contacts. |
Focus is on strengthening organizations and communities by: |
| WIN or LOSE, depending on election outcomes | Builds relationships and energizes communities regardless of election outcomes. |
Korean Resource Center, Case Study of Movement-Building Electoral Organizing
Movement-Building Electoral Organizing in Orange County and Los Angeles County During the 2008 elections, the Korean Resource Center (KRC) worked in two areas with high concentrations of Korean Americans: LA County and Orange County. KRC implemented a nonpartisan electoral organizing campaign that included: voter registration at churches and markets, political education workshops in coordination with Orange County Korean American Citizens League, outreach to local ethnic media, and GOTV activities such as in-language robo calls, phone banking and precinct walking. In Orange County, KRC was able to:
1) Register, educate and mobilize Korean American voters to defeat Propositions 6 & 9
2) Identify these voters as “supporters”
3) Through targeting and identification, build a base of supportive Korean American voters to become precinct leaders and advocates for issues important to the Korean American community.
Voter Targeting Through MIV and California VoterConnect, KRC accessed the Voter Activation Network (VAN) interface to create targeted voter lists. Frequent Korean American voters were targeted with phone banking and precinct walking with a goal of recruiting them as future leaders of electoral or issue campaigns. KRC chose to work in Orange County, where there is heavy anti-immigrant sentiment, and their base, Los Angeles County.
Connecting Electoral Campaigns to Issue Campaigns KRC plans to integrate voters they identified (who agreed with their recommended position on specific ballot measures) into their membership drive outreach and future GOTV lists. Eventually, after tracking responses and turnout, KRC plans to build a “Power Vote” list of frequent and supporting Korean American voters. This list will be targeted for leadership development, political education, annual fundraisers, Legislative visits around key issue campaigns with their Representatives, and even precinct leader or member recruitment.
KRC conducted exit polling in the 2008 election which found that 78% of Korean Americans supported “Making affordable health insurance and basic medical care available to all persons, regardless of their immigration status.” This data was used in their advocacy work to highlight the strong support among Korean Americans for health insurance including immigrants. Members involved in KRC’s 2008 elections program flew to D.C. to lobby on behalf of SCHIP. On February 4, President Obama signed into law the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP), which will continue to provide health care for 7 million children and cover an additional 4 million children in need by lifting the federal five-year bar on legal immigrant children and pregnant women.
