There are at least 20,000 Korean registered voters in the New York metropolitan area, according to a recent survey.

In a study released on October 22, the Young Korean-American Service and Education Center examined voter registration in the Queens area. “The New York City Board of Elections list of registered voters in the Queens area shows at least 13,000 registered Korean voters,” said Yoo-song Mun, administration director of the Center. “The total number of registered Korean voters in New York is estimated at 20,000.” The analysis is based upon a study of the ethnic origin of the names.

About 72 percent of Koreans in New York live in Queens. Only every fifth Korean is eligible to vote.

The report said that until now the number of Koreans registered to vote had been estimated at between 6,000 and 10,000, whereas the actual numbers are two to three times higher. This is the first time clarity has been brought to these numbers.

When the number of Korean voters in Queens is examined by demographics—gender, party, election district and so on—it appeared that there are 600 more women voters than men. In terms of party affiliation, registered Democrats were 53 percent, Republicans were 16 percent, and 31 percent were not affiliated to any party. Many Koreans voters registered, but did not claim affiliation.

Many Koreans lost their chance to vote in their party primaries, thus losing possible benefits from the parties.

The breakdown by election district shows that Flushing has the highest percentage of registered Korean voters—59.6 percent or 7,793 persons. Flushing includes the 5th Election District. Councilman John Liu’s 20th Election District has 30.7 percent, or 4,011 persons registered. The 16th Election District has 39.6 percent, or 5,177 registered Koreans.

In all the districts put together Korean voters comprised 7 percent of voters for City Council, 3.8 percent of those voting to elect state senator and 3.7 percent in the federal elections.

According to these election statistics, Korean voters make up 1.4 percent of the total number of registered voters in Queens. In a breakdown by age, the number of voters under 20 years of age was only 0.5 percent, those in their 40s were 17 percent, while in the 18-39 age group were 31.5 percent. This means that the over-40 age group of voters is the largest number showing interest in political participation.

Statistics also show that young voters did not register to vote, therefore the low numbers. Young people are frequently indifferent to politics and they especially have not recognized the importance of voting.

Even though Korean immigration has been going on for 100 years, and despite a huge increase in immigration during the 1980s, Korean immigrants did not recognize the importance of becoming naturalized citizens. After 1990, Koreans have slowly begun to overcome their ignorance of the political process.