21%与42%之间：芝加哥唐人街的这一票
一、先看数字：一张精确到小区的成绩单
2026年11月6日，华人更好社区联盟（Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community，CBCAC）旗下刊物《华埠焦点》（Chinatown Spotlight）发表中期选举盘点，主编树溪执笔。盘点引用的芝加哥选举委员会数据，截至11月4日下午3时：芝加哥全市总投票率为42.03%。
同一个芝加哥，往华人聚居的南边走，数字逐级往下掉。涵盖唐人街与桥港区（Bridgeport）的第11区，总投票率为35.86%，比全市低6.17个百分点；包含麦金利公园（McKinley Park）和布莱顿公园（Brighton Park）的第12区，为35.5%。再往里走，到华人高度聚居的唐人街核心小区：第1小区28.52%，第2小区22.72%，第7小区20.98%。
20.98%这个数字值得停一下：它恰好只有全市投票率42.03%的一半左右。也就是说，在11月3日这场全美瞩目的中期选举里，唐人街最核心的街区，每五个登记选民中只有约一人投了票；而在同一座城市，平均每五人有两人以上投了票。第1小区与全市的差距是13.51个百分点，第2小区是19.31个百分点，第7小区是21.05个百分点。即便只和自己所在的第11区平均数比，三个核心小区也分别低了7.34、13.14和14.88个百分点—差距不只在「区与市」之间，也在同一个区内部：越靠近唐人街核心，投票率越低。
需要先说清的是，这是一张「中途成绩单」。CBCAC盘点写明，邮寄选票当时仍在陆续返回与统计中；按芝加哥选举规则，以选举日邮戳为准的邮寄选票在选后仍有一段计票期。因此42.03%与35.86%都是11月4日下午3时的截面，最终认证数字只会更高。但截面本身已经足够说明结构：差距出现在每一个层级上—市、区、小区，层层递减。
投票方式的数据同样来自这份盘点：全市共有211,657人参加了现场提前投票，截至选举日已完成计票的邮寄选票达109,215张。芝加哥选举委员会此前预测，本次选举整体投票率有望超过2022年中期选举。
二、全市并不冷清：排队、缺票与提前投票热
把镜头拉回全市，11月3日的芝加哥并不冷清。据芝加哥选举委员会数字（经当地媒体选举日报道引述），到选举日下午3时15分，全市已有232,672人现场投票，高于2022年中期选举同一时刻的227,633人；现场提前投票较2022年中期选举增加约24%。选举日当天，多个投票站出现排队与纸质选票一度告罄的情况，选委会称缺票集中在选区边界交叉、需要多达七种选票组合的「分割小区」，并从麦金利公园的仓库与市中心办公室加印、加送选票。选委会发言人朱莉·梅蒂亚（Julie Metea）确认，晚7时关站前已排队的选民依法可以投票。
换言之，这不是一场「大家都没去投票」的选举。全市层面的参与热度有提前投票增幅与选举日人流为证；唐人街核心小区的低数字，是在一场热度不低的选举里录得的。这是理解20.98%的第一个背景。
第二个背景在库克县郊区：县书记官莫妮卡·戈登（Monica Gordon）办公室的数据显示，郊区提前投票到选举日前一天已超过25万张，较2022年同期增加31%，邮寄选票已回寄近10.7万张。整个都会区都在往前走，唐人街核心区的步速明显落在后面。
三、第11区的前世：从市长摇篮到全市首个亚裔多数区
要理解第11区的35.86%，先要知道第11区是谁。
这个区在芝加哥政治版图上分量极重：它是戴利家族的大本营，20世纪先后出过五位市长，包括理查德·J·戴利与理查德·M·戴利父子。桥港区传统上是爱尔兰裔聚居区，唐人街所在的阿默广场（Armour Square）与之相邻。人口结构在过去几十年间悄然改写：据芝加哥都市规划机构的数据，桥港区的亚裔居民占比已超过白人，成为当地最大的族群组成部分。
转折点在2022年。时任第11区市议员帕特里克·戴利·汤普森因联邦税务欺诈被定罪、丧失任职资格；市长洛丽·莱特富特任命李惠华（Nicole Lee）接任。李惠华生于唐人街、长于当地，是芝加哥市议会历史上首位华裔议员、首位亚裔女性议员，也是继阿梅亚·帕瓦尔之后市议会第二位亚裔议员；她在2023年赢得完整任期。十年一次的选区重划中，第11区被划为芝加哥历史上第一个亚裔占多数的选区（ward）—把唐人街与桥港区放在同一个区里，正是华人社区争取多年的目标。CBCAC在其影响报告中，把「促成首位华裔市议员当选、创设全市首个亚裔多数区」列为该组织二十余年工作的节点之一，与争取唐人街新公共图书馆、唐人街获州级文化区称号并列。
也就是说，2026年这场选举，是唐人街在「版图上已经赢了」之后迎来的又一次大考：区是亚裔多数区，议员是华裔，选票上有伊利诺伊州联邦参议员、州长与芝加哥历史上首届全民选教委会—但核心小区的投票率，停在了20.98%。
四、动员的人：从2000年到2026年，一件做了二十多年的事
低投票率不是没人管。恰恰相反，唐人街可能是全美被「催票」历史最长的华人社区之一。
CBCAC成立于1998年，自2000年起持续做华人选民动员。西北大学梅迪尔新闻学院2016年的一篇报道记录过当年的日常：该组织社区发展协调员黛比·刘（Debbie Liu）常年在唐人街与居民交谈、劝说一贯不热衷投票的居民登记。她当时说：「亚裔历来有低于平均水平的投票习惯。」组织每年为大唐人街地区登记新选民，范围从阿默广场延伸到桥港区、麦金利公园、布莱顿公园与南环区；据美国人口普查局数字，该地区2010年亚裔人口达28,000人，以华裔为主。梅迪尔报道还记录了一个细节：当时芝加哥共有61个小区被列为「华人小区」，投票站须配备双语志愿者协助；选委会负责华人外展的简·刘（Jane Lau）说，居民问得最多的一句话是：「我该投给谁？我一个都不认识。」
2020年，CBCAC时任执行主任陈黄美莲（Grace Chan McKibben）接受芝加哥City Bureau采访时，把障碍逐项摊开：许多移民不熟悉英语，部分长者入籍时因年长与居住年限获得考试豁免，英文程度有限；对美国政府体系不熟悉，认识全部候选人需要时间；唐人街许多人收入较低、全天工作，投票与了解候选人排不上优先项。她还提到，单是投票站地点变动、邮寄投票说明只有英文版这类程序细节，都会把最不常投票的人挡在门外。同一次采访里，她列出社区真正关心的议题：房产税能否稳定、小商家能获得什么资源与规划支持。
这些障碍并非停留在纸面上。CBCAC的公民教育页面保留了一位86岁黄婆婆的自述：「我入籍二十多年了，从没投过票，因为我不懂英文。CBCAC提供的中文选民指南帮我弄懂了这些职位和候选人。我在2024年大选中投了总统票，还鼓励了几位朋友去投票。」按CBCAC公布，2024年该组织办了40多场公民教育工作坊，全年接触选民超过6,000人；其工作坊以粤语与普通话双语进行，选举周期内在唐人街办候选人论坛、市政厅会议与讲座。
2026年这一轮，动员照样在做。选举前一周，华埠团体上门派发投票信息、陪同移民选民前往提前投票站做最后动员，本站此前已有报道。动员做了，论坛办了，指南印了—然后，第7小区的数字停在20.98%。2018年，唐人街一带投票率为38%，City Bureau当时即注明该地区投票率「一贯低于全市平均」。八年过去，参照系换了（38%为地区口径，与今日的小区口径不完全可比），但「低于平均」这四个字没有变。
五、全国的镜子：意愿与行动之间，隔着什么
唐人街的数字并非孤例，它嵌在一组很少被放在一起看的全国数据里。
第一项是选前调查。AAPI Data与APIAVote发布的2026年亚裔选民调查（2026年6月3日至7月27日进行，访问2,066名已登记的亚太裔选民）显示：全美有约1,600万名合资格亚太裔选民，其中约160万是2022年中期选举以来新获得资格者；90%的已登记亚太裔选民表示打算在中期选举投票，高于2022年的84%，其中华裔选民的这一比例为88%。生活成本与通胀居议题之首：90%的亚裔受访者称其为决定投票的「非常或极其重要」因素。
但同一调查的历史序列提醒了另一面：亚裔选民的中期选举实际投票率，2014年为27%，2018年升至40%，2022年仍为40%。意愿调查里的90%，与实际投票率序列里的40%，中间隔着的正是陈黄美莲2020年列出的那串障碍—工作时间、语言、信息可达性。
第二项是选后调查。亚裔推进正义协会（Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC）与APIAVote于11月5日发布的2026年中期选举选民调查（亚太裔过采样2,000人）显示：亚太裔选民中，79%支持通过新的《投票权法案》消除投票障碍，77%认为应为英文不熟练的选民提供翻译或口译协助，59%担心投票权正受到冲击；89%支持包含入籍通道与家庭团聚通道的移民制度调整。每三名亚太裔选民中有一人上次投票是在2022年或更晚，每八人中有一人是首次投票。APIAVote执行主任克里斯汀·陈（Christine Chen）在发布会上说：「亚太裔选民中有四分之一是近年才成为首次投票者。许多人是年轻人、新公民—是他们家庭里第一个在这个国家投票的人。」推进正义协会主席兼执行主任杨重远（John C. Yang）则说，生活成本仍是核心关切，同时亚裔选民在这次中期选举中明确表达了保护投票权、改革移民制度等优先项。BSP Research亚裔民调主任李泰久（Taeku Lee）指出，三项高支持度—79%支持新《投票权法案》、77%支持语言协助、89%支持含入籍通道的移民调整—共同把「可及性、机会与家庭团聚」放在了亚裔选民优先事项的中心。
把两项调查与唐人街的小区数字并排看，对照正在这里：全国调查里，语言协助的支持率是77%，首次与低频选民占了新投票力量的大头，而社区组织是非党派催票的主要执行者—选后调查显示，每三名亚太裔选民中有一人曾被非党派或社区组织联系过。唐人街恰好是这三条线的交汇点：语言需求最集中、首次与低频选民最密集、社区组织动员历史最长。它的20.98%，量的是这三条线同时作用之后，还剩多远的路。
六、选票上还有什么：伊州与芝加哥的这一夜
回到盘点本身。2026年的伊利诺伊州选情平稳：现任州长J.B.普利兹克再次击败共和党对手，开启第三任期；现任副州长朱莉安娜·斯特拉顿接替即将退休的联邦参议员迪克·德宾当选联邦参议员—CBCAC盘点特别指出，这使伊利诺伊州历史上首次同时由两名有色族裔女性担任联邦参议员，另一位是亚裔的谭美·达克沃斯。
芝加哥市层面，这次选举是该市历史上首次由选民投票选出全体教育委员会成员，结束了长期以来的市长任命制。前校长、现任教委会委员杰西卡·比格斯当选首任民选教委会主席；在7B选区，现任委员耶塞尼亚·洛佩斯以68.5%的得票率战胜挑战者埃里卡·迪亚斯-查韦斯。教委会掌管全市公立学校系统，唐人街与桥港区的家庭同样在它的辖区之内—这也是核心小区投票率值得被单独拎出来看的原因之一：选票上的每一项，都与没有去投票的人的日常生活直接相关。
CBCAC盘点在联邦层面的记录还包括：据美联社针对全美50州逾10万名选民的选民调查，约40%的选民明确表示投票是为了表达对总统特朗普的反对，不足20%表示支持总统，约40%表示特朗普不是其投票考量因素；约半数选民把政府腐败与生活成本列为投票给国会候选人的关键因素。全国层面的投票动机以生活成本为轴，与亚裔选民调查的议题排序以及唐人街居民关心的房产税与小商家资源，指向同一组日常议题。
七、接下来，看三个数字
这篇盘点能确定的与不能确定的，需要分开说。能确定的是截面：11月4日下午3时，全市42.03%、第11区35.86%、核心小区最低20.98%，三个层级、同一个方向。不能确定的是终点：邮寄选票仍在计票，最终认证的市、区与小区投票率都会比截面高，最终高多少，要等芝加哥选举委员会完成认证后才有完整的小区级表格。
接下来值得盯住的，是三个后续数字。其一，认证后的第11区最终投票率，与全市最终数字之间的差距，是比6.17个百分点收窄了、还是保持原样—邮寄投票的构成将直接影响这个答案。其二，第1、第2、第7三个核心小区的最终数字：截面时它们分别是28.52%、22.72%与20.98%，邮寄票计入后能否整体抬升。其三，下一轮市级选举周期开始前，选委会与社区组织公布的与语言协助、双语志愿者配置相关的数据—2016年梅迪尔报道里「61个华人小区须配双语志愿者」的口径，如今对应的是多少个小区、多少名志愿者，将直接对应选后调查里77%的语言协助支持率落地的程度。
盘点文章的结尾，树溪写道，如何提升华裔社区的参政意愿，仍是社区面对的课题。从1998年CBCAC成立、2000年开始动员，到2022年第一个亚裔多数区划成、第一位华裔市议员就座，再到2026年11月这个20.98%—版图、席位与动员都已经走完了一程，投票率这一程还没有。晚安之前，把这张小区级的成绩单再看一遍：第7小区，20.98%；全市，42.03%。两个数字之间隔着的，正是下一轮选举之前，芝加哥唐人街要走的全部路程。
资料引用：亚裔推进正义协会（AAJC）、AAPI Data、APIAVote、芝加哥选举委员会、西北大学梅迪尔新闻学院
Between 21% and 42%: Chinatown's Ballot in Chicago
1. The numbers first: a scorecard drawn precinct by precinct
On November 6, 2026, Chinatown Spotlight, the publication of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), published its review of the midterm elections, written by its editor, Shuxi. Compiling Chicago Board of Elections figures as of 3 p.m. on November 4, the review put citywide turnout in Chicago at 42.03%.
Within the same city, the numbers step down as one moves toward the neighborhoods where Chinese residents are concentrated. The 11th Ward, covering Chinatown and Bridgeport, recorded turnout of 35.86% — 6.17 percentage points below the citywide figure. The 12th Ward, which includes McKinley Park and Brighton Park, stood at 35.5%. Deeper in, in the core precincts where Chinese residents are most concentrated, turnout was lower still: 28.52% in Precinct 1, 22.72% in Precinct 2, and 20.98% in Precinct 7.
The 20.98% figure is worth pausing on: it is almost exactly half the citywide rate of 42.03%. In the most closely watched midterm election in years, roughly one in five registered voters cast a ballot in the heart of Chinatown, while across the city more than two in five did. Precinct 1 trailed the city by 13.51 points, Precinct 2 by 19.31 points, and Precinct 7 by 21.05 points. Even measured against their own ward's average of 35.86%, the three core precincts ran 7.34, 13.14 and 14.88 points behind — the gap exists not only between ward and city, but inside the ward itself: the closer to the core of Chinatown, the lower the turnout.
One caveat belongs up front: this is a snapshot, not a final score. The CBCAC review noted that mail ballots were still being returned and counted, and under Chicago's rules, ballots postmarked by Election Day continue to be counted after it. The final certified figures for the city, the wards and the precincts will all be higher than the November 4 snapshot. But the structure the snapshot reveals is already clear: at every level — city, ward, precinct — the numbers descend in the same direction.
The review also recorded how Chicago voted: 211,657 people voted early in person, and 109,215 mail ballots had been counted by Election Day. The Chicago Board of Elections had previously projected that overall turnout could surpass the 2022 midterms.
2. The city itself was not quiet: lines, ballot shortages and an early-voting surge
Citywide, November 3 in Chicago was not a quiet day. According to Chicago Board of Elections figures cited in local Election Day reporting, 232,672 people had voted in person by 3:15 p.m., ahead of the 227,633 recorded by the same time in the 2022 midterms, and in-person early voting was up about 24% from 2022. Several polling places saw lines and temporary shortages of paper ballots; the Board said the shortages were concentrated in split precincts where overlapping boundaries require as many as seven different ballot combinations, and that additional ballots were being printed and delivered from its McKinley Park warehouse and downtown offices. Board spokesperson Julie Metea confirmed that any voter in line by the 7 p.m. closing time was legally entitled to vote.
In other words, this was not an election in which nobody showed up. The city's participation had an early-voting surge and Election Day crowds to show for itself; Chinatown's core precinct numbers were recorded in the middle of a high-energy election. That is the first piece of context for the 20.98%.
The second is suburban Cook County. The office of County Clerk Monica Gordon reported more than 250,000 early votes by the day before the election, up 31% from the same point in 2022, with nearly 107,000 mail ballots already returned. The whole metropolitan area was moving forward; the core of Chinatown was moving noticeably more slowly.
3. The 11th Ward's past: from mayoral cradle to the city's first Asian American majority ward
Understanding the 11th Ward's 35.86% requires knowing whose ward it is.
Few wards carry more weight in Chicago politics: the 11th was the base of the Daley family and produced five mayors in the 20th century, including Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley. Bridgeport was traditionally an Irish American enclave, with Chinatown's Armour Square next door. The population has been quietly rewritten over recent decades: according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Asian residents in Bridgeport have surpassed white residents to become the area's largest ethnic group.
The turning point came in 2022. The sitting 11th Ward alderman, Patrick Daley Thompson, was removed after a federal tax fraud conviction made him ineligible to hold office, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed Nicole Lee to the seat. Born and raised in Chinatown, Lee became the first Chinese American and the first Asian American woman to serve on the Chicago City Council, and only its second Asian American member after Ameya Pawar; she won a full term in 2023. In the once-a-decade remap that followed, the 11th Ward was drawn as the first Asian American majority ward in Chicago history, keeping Chinatown and Bridgeport in the same ward — a goal the Chinese American community had pursued for years. In its impact report, CBCAC lists helping to elect the first Chinese American to the City Council and creating the first Asian American majority ward among the milestones of its more than two decades of work, alongside the campaign for the new Chinatown public library and Chinatown's State-Designated Cultural District title.
The 2026 election, then, was an exam Chinatown sat after it had already won on the map: an Asian American majority ward, a Chinese American alderwoman, and a ballot carrying a U.S. Senate race, a governor's race and Chicago's first fully elected school board. The core precincts' answer was 20.98%.
4. The mobilizers: a job twenty years in the making
Low turnout in Chinatown has not been for lack of attention. If anything, it may be the most persistently canvassed Chinese community in America.
CBCAC was founded in 1998 and has been mobilizing Chinese voters since 2000. A 2016 report by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism captured the daily work: Debbie Liu, the organization's community development coordinator, spent her days talking with Chinatown residents and urging traditionally reluctant ones to register. "Asians have a traditionally lower than average voting habit," Liu said at the time. The organization registered new voters across the Greater Chinatown Area, from Armour Square to Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Brighton Park and the South Loop — an area whose Asian population, mostly of Chinese descent, reached 28,000 in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Medill also recorded a detail that still frames the problem: 61 precincts in Chicago were categorized as Chinese precincts where bilingual volunteers are required at the polling places, and Jane Lau, who handled Chinese voter outreach at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said the question residents asked most was, "Whom should I vote for? I don't know any of them."
In 2020, Grace Chan McKibben, then CBCAC's executive director, laid out the barriers one by one in an interview with City Bureau: many immigrants are not familiar with English, and some older citizens had qualified for waivers of the citizenship test's English requirements and have limited English; unfamiliarity with the U.S. government system makes learning every candidate a slow task; and many Chinatown residents earn lower incomes and work all day, leaving voting low on the list of priorities. She added that procedural details — a changed polling place, mail-ballot instructions sent only in English — fall hardest on the least frequent voters. In the same interview she named the issues the community actually raised with her: whether property taxes could be stabilized, and what resources and planning support existed for small businesses.
Those barriers are not abstractions. CBCAC's civic education page preserves the account of an 86-year-old, Mrs. Wong: "I have been a citizen for over 20 years, but I have never voted because I do not know English. The Chinese Voter Guide CBCAC provided helped me understand these positions and candidates. I voted for the president in the 2024 election. And I also encouraged some of my friends to vote." According to CBCAC, it hosted more than 40 civic education workshops in 2024 and engaged more than 6,000 voters that year; its workshops run bilingually in Cantonese and Mandarin, and each election cycle it hosts candidate forums, town halls and workshops in Chinatown or in Chinese.
The mobilization ran again in 2026: in the final week before the election, Chinatown groups went door to door with voting information and accompanied immigrant voters to an early voting site, as this newsroom previously reported. The forums were held, the guides were printed — and Precinct 7 finished at 20.98%. In 2018, turnout in the Chinatown area was 38%, and City Bureau noted at the time that turnout there is "routinely lower than the city average." Eight years on, the measurement has changed — the 38% was an area figure, not directly comparable to today's precinct numbers — but the words "lower than average" have not.
5. The national mirror: between intention and action
Chinatown's numbers are not an isolated case. They sit inside a set of national figures that are rarely read side by side.
The first is the pre-election survey. The 2026 AAPI Voter Survey by AAPI Data and APIAVote, conducted from June 3 to July 27 among 2,066 registered Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, estimated about 16 million eligible AAPI voters nationwide, including about 1.6 million who became eligible since the 2022 midterms. Ninety percent of registered AAPI voters said they planned to vote in the midterms, up from 84% in 2022 — among Chinese American voters, the figure was 88%. The cost of living and inflation topped the issue list, described as very or extremely important by 90% of Asian American respondents.
But the same survey's historical series tells the other half of the story: actual Asian American midterm turnout was 27% in 2014, rose to 40% in 2018, and remained at 40% in 2022. Between the 90% of intention and the 40% of the turnout series lies exactly the list of obstacles Grace Chan McKibben named in 2020 — work schedules, language, and access to information.
The second is the post-election survey. The 2026 Midterm Election Voter Poll released on November 5 by Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC and APIAVote, with an AAPI oversample of 2,000 voters, found that 79% of AAPI voters support passing a new Voting Rights Act to eliminate barriers to voting, 77% agree that translations or interpreters should be available to voters who do not speak or read English well, and 59% worry that voting rights are under attack; 89% support immigration changes that include a pathway to citizenship and pathways for families. One in three AAPI voters last voted in 2022 or later, and one in eight was a first-time voter. "One in four became first-time voters in recent years. Many are young people and new citizens — the first in their families to vote in this country," said Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote. John C. Yang, president and executive director of Advancing Justice – AAJC, said the cost of living remained a central concern while Asian American voters also arrived with clear priorities on protecting the freedom to vote and reforming the immigration system. Taeku Lee, director of AAPI polling at BSP Research, noted that the three high-support figures — 79% for a new Voting Rights Act, 77% for language assistance and 89% for immigration changes with pathways to citizenship and families — together put access, opportunity and family unity at the center of what AAPI voters are expressing.
Read together with the precinct numbers, the surveys frame the comparison: nationally, support for language assistance stands at 77%, first-time and low-propensity voters make up a large share of the new voting strength, and community organizations are the main nonpartisan messengers — the post-election poll found one in three AAPI voters had been contacted by a nonpartisan or community organization. Chinatown is where all three lines converge: the most concentrated language need, the densest population of first-time and infrequent voters, and the longest-running community mobilization in the country. Its 20.98% measures how far those three lines, working together, still have to go.
6. What else was on the ballot: Illinois and Chicago that night
Illinois itself was settled early, as the CBCAC review recorded. Governor J.B. Pritzker defeated his Republican opponent again and begins a third term. Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton was elected to the U.S. Senate, succeeding the retiring Senator Dick Durbin — a result the review singled out because it makes Stratton and Tammy Duckworth, who is Asian American, the first pair of women of color to represent Illinois in the Senate at the same time.
In Chicago, this election was the first in the city's history in which all members of the Board of Education were elected by voters, ending the long-standing system of mayoral appointment. Jessica Biggs, a former principal and sitting board member, was elected the first elected president of the Chicago Board of Education, and in District 7B, incumbent Yesenia Lopez defeated challenger Erika Diaz-Chavez with 68.5% of the vote. The school board runs the city's public school system, and the families of Chinatown and Bridgeport live inside its jurisdiction — one more reason the core precincts' turnout is worth reading on its own: every line on that ballot touches the daily lives of the people who did not cast one.
The review's federal notes included the Associated Press Voter Poll of more than 100,000 voters across all 50 states: about 40% of voters said they voted to express opposition to President Donald Trump, fewer than 20% said they voted to support him, and about 40% said he was not a factor in their vote; about half of voters listed government corruption and the cost of living as key factors in their congressional vote. The national motivation ran on the cost of living — the same axis as the AAPI survey's top issue, and the same set of daily concerns, property taxes and small-business resources, that Chinatown residents have raised with community organizers for years.
7. What to watch next: three numbers
What this review establishes, and what it cannot, should be kept separate. What is established is the snapshot: as of 3 p.m. on November 4, the city stood at 42.03%, the 11th Ward at 35.86%, and the lowest core precinct at 20.98% — three levels, one direction. What is not yet established is the endpoint: mail ballots are still being counted, and the certified city, ward and precinct figures will all be higher than the snapshot. How much higher will only be known when the Chicago Board of Elections completes certification and publishes the full precinct table.
Three follow-up numbers are worth watching. First, the certified 11th Ward figure and its final gap against the certified citywide rate — whether the 6.17-point gap narrows or holds will depend heavily on the composition of the late-counted mail vote. Second, the final figures for Precincts 1, 2 and 7, which stood at 28.52%, 22.72% and 20.98% in the snapshot: whether the mail count lifts the core as a whole. Third, the language-assistance data the Board and community organizations publish before the next municipal cycle begins — how the "61 Chinese precincts" that Medill counted in 2016, each requiring bilingual volunteers, maps onto today's precincts and volunteer rosters will measure how far the 77% national support for language assistance has been turned into practice.
The review closes by noting that raising civic participation in the Chinese American community remains an open task. From CBCAC's founding in 1998 and the start of its voter mobilization in 2000, to the first Asian American majority ward and the first Chinese American alderwoman in 2022, to this November's 20.98% — the map, the seat and the mobilization have each completed a leg of the journey. The turnout leg has not. Before the day ends, the precinct scorecard is worth one more look: Precinct 7, 20.98%; the city, 42.03%. Between those two numbers lies the whole distance Chicago's Chinatown has left to travel before the next election.
Reference: Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, AAPI Data, APIAVote, Chicago Board of Elections, Medill School of Journalism
来源：华人更好社区联盟《华埠焦点》
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图片来源：图：芝加哥唐人街牌楼正面（Wentworth大道与Cermak路口）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons（Chicago Chinatown (35739724711).jpg），Mack Male 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0。 / Photo: Front view of the Chinatown Gate in Chicago at Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Chicago Chinatown (35739724711).jpg), photo by Mack Male, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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