New Jersey's immigrants could be the difference on Election Day, but turnout's a challenge
New Jersey is home to about 1.2 million naturalized citizens. On Tuesday, when all 120 seats in the New Jersey Legislature are up for election, these citizens will have the opportunity to vote for their candidate of choice.
However, voter turnout can be a challenge when it comes to naturalized citizens, who make up about 13% of the state's population. And New Jersey has a lot of newly minted citizens.
There are 177,890 New Jersey residents who were naturalized between 2016 and 2020. That is the fifth-highest number naturalized in the United States during that period, ranking behind California, Florida, New York and Texas.
Amy Torres, the executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said that among naturalized citizens, there are a good number of eligible voters.
"It's more so a question of whether parties are actually doing outreach to them. Whether they're encouraging them to vote in local elections," Torres said. "We know from patterns in the past that it tends not to be true. Parties do a really poor job of tailoring outreach to immigrant communities."
The National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant and refugee rights organizations, found last year that in the 2020 presidential election, 61% of naturalized citizens voted, compared with 67% of native-born citizens.
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The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, in an analysis of U.S. census data released in May, found that the voter turnout rate of Latino naturalized citizens in the 2022 midterm elections was 39.5%, down from the 44.2% turnout rate for the 2018 midterm elections.
Newly naturalized citizens who settle in New Jersey, according to the report, "New American Voters in New Jersey," come from various origins, with about 44% from South and Central America, 36% from Asia, 11% from Europe, and 9% from the African continent.
Voter turnout in New Jersey
District 11 in Monmouth County is one of the tightest and most closely watched races this year, with Democratic incumbent State Sen. Vin Gopal facing a challenge from Republican Stephen Dnistrian. Gopal’s Assembly running mates, Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, are trying to avoid an upset by Republican challengers Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner.
Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, said naturalized citizen voters could affect the race in District 11.
The district's population is 19% Hispanic or Latino — equating to more than 42,000 people. Another 4%, or more than 9,600, are Asian, according to the 2020 U.S. census.
"What's the turnout in that election going to be? In the 20s, around 20%," Cassino said, referring to overall turnout, which tends to be lower in a non-presidential election. "Mobilizing even relatively small groups is going to matter a lot. If I can get an extra thousand votes out of something, an extra 500 votes, that could make or break in that district. This could be a very low-turnout election."
New voters
What are the challenges in getting naturalized citizens to vote in the Garden State?
It starts with a lot of groundwork.
This past weekend, small groups went door-to-door canvassing immigrant communities in North and Central Jersey to get the word out about the importance of the vote.
Diego Bartesaghi, communications manager for Make the Road Action New Jersey, a group that mobilizes new Latino voters, said "What we got was a lot of yeses, a lot of excitement about the voting. A lot of people want to engage, and they want to vote and are thankful for the information."
Amber Reed, president of the group AAPI Montclair, said getting out the vote in the Asian American community has been a focus of the organization for this election cycle and next year's presidential election.
"We've been trying to talk to our community, which historically does have lower voting turnout rates, about why this is so important," Reed said. "It doesn't even matter who you vote for, so much as just voting for anyone because politicians think we don't vote, and that means they think they can ignore us."
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Turnout crucial for immigrants to make difference in NJ election
