While some Asian communities are making great strides in the political world, many South Asians in Queens are still trying get their political footing. Borough Reporter Ruschell Boone has more.
There are voter registration drives being held in many South Asian enclaves of Southeast Queens. New citizens are signing up every week, including Chandrowtie Mooneram, who is legally blind.
She's hoping to elect a South Asian candidate to represent Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park one day.
"That would be so wonderful," said Mooneram.
The area has a high concentration of Indo-Caribbean residents, Sikhs and other Indian Americans, but the district lines were drawn to include areas with large numbers or white, black and Hispanic residents as well.
"Our biggest problem is that Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park has been chopped into six Assembly Districts, four City Council Districts, two Congressional Districts, three State Senatorial Districts," said Vishnu Mahadeo, executive director of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council.
But that's not the only problem facing Asian voters who say their issues are often overlooked because of a lack of representation. Some are confused about this country's election process.
Satnam Singh Parhar faced those issues when he ran for City Council in Bellerose last year.
"It is hard," Parhar said. "People don't know. Many people do not know or have any knowledge how important this vote is."
Harpreet Singh Toor is also a former City Council Candidate and community activist. He says South Asians will eventually elect one of their own. The question is when.
"We have this vision going forward that ok you know what we know the rate of growth of our population," Toor said. "Before the next census which is 2020 we should have somebody in there.
But Democratic strategist Evan Stavisky says that person will still need support beyond the South Asian community.
"Certainly the recipe for political success starts with having strong support within your own community, but then you have to take it a step further," Stavinsky said. "You have to be able to build support in a very diverse county like Queens across multiple constituencies because very rarely is there any one community that's going to propel someone to victory.