One-third of Asian-Americans undecided

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RIVERSIDE, Calif., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- One-third of Asian-American voters are undecided on the U.S. presidential race, and are getting "considerable" attention from the campaigns, a researcher said.

Karthick Ramakrishnan of the University of California, Riverside -- who is also the director of the National Asian American Survey -- and Taeku Lee of the University of California, Berkeley, conducted a survey of more than 3,300 Asian-Americans in conjunction with National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum and Asian American Justice Center.

"Asian-American voters are getting a considerable amount of attention from the presidential campaigns this year, particularly in the battleground states of Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia," Ramakrishnan said in a statement. "When compared to the general electorate, and even the Latino electorate, the Asian-American vote is very much up for grabs at this late stage in the presidential campaign."

The survey found 32 percent of likely Asian-American voters remain undecided -- much higher than the estimated 7 percent among the general population. Moreover, 1-in-6 Asian-Americans lives in a battleground state, Ramakrishnan said.

Among likely voters, 43 percent of Asian-Americans said they support President Barack Obama, while 24 percent prefer GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

However, Indian-Americans show the strongest support for Obama at 68 percent, while 39 percent of Samoans and 38 percent of Filipinos support Romney. Fifty-one percent of Asian Americans said they were independents.

Hmong, Indian and Korean-Americans most strongly identify with the Democratic Party, while Filipino-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans favor the Republican Party.

Issues most important to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are similar to those of the rest of the country -- the economy and jobs, healthcare and education, the researchers said.