The number of Filipinos living in Nevada more than doubled from 2000 to 2010, making them the fastest growing population of Filipinos in the United States.
Seeking to improve political awareness and voter participation, and in acknowledging the growth of Clark County and the state’s Filipino population, community leaders last month launched the first non-partisan grassroots political organization dedicated to Nevada’s Filipino-Americans.
As a further indication of this growth and now that early voting has begun for the June 12 primary, there was something new to be found on the ballot.
“Before we only had the English and the Spanish, now we have the Tagalog as a third language,” said poll worker Dalanm Villanueva, while pointing to the voting machine’s touch screen.
Even though he is a native English speaker, voter Ronnie Luneza, a 40-year old Filipino-American, was pleased to have the option of using Tagalog on the voting machine.
“It is nice to be recognized now that Filipinos are a large part of the Las Vegas community, and it is just great to see that we are making accommodations for the Filipino voters,” Luneza said.
According to Jude Joffe-Block, a senior field correspondent with Fronteras, Clark County was one of several western, urban jurisdictions that added a new Asian language translation this year. San Diego County added Chinese, and already offers Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog. Los Angeles County added Cambodian and Asian Indian to the six other languages the county previously offered.
