Exit poll results show that in last fall's election, Asian American voters from three Michigan cities overwhelmingly opposed a ban on affirmative action even though the ban may be against their own self-interest when it comes to college admission.

The passage of a similar ban in California resulted in an increase in Asian Americans at public universities.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund presented yesterday at the University Law School the results of an exit poll that showed that 78 percent of all Asian voters surveyed in Ann Arbor, Hamtramck and Dearborn voted against Proposal 2, which banned the use of affirmative action by public institutions in Michigan.

Those numbers show far more opposition to Proposal 2 from Asian voters than from white voters. The measure passed with 58 percent of the vote. The data also shows that Asian American voters opposed Proposal 2 by a wider margin than each of the three cities did as a whole.

A decade ago, before a similar ban was passed in California, the University of California system's freshman class was 36 percent Asian American, but Asian American students make up 42 percent of this year's freshman class. Asian Americans make up only 14 percent of the state's high school graduates.

At the University of Michigan, Asian Americans are not considered underrepresented minorities and therefore did not receive preferences in admission before the passage of Proposal 2.

Still, Mark Grebner, president of the consulting firm Practical Political Consulting, said he's not surprised by the data.

He said Asian Americans feel marginalized in American society in a similar way to black Americans.

Because Asian Americans are also minorities in a primarily white society, Grebner said they sympathize with the interests of black people, thus they would oppose an anti-affirmative-action measure like Proposal 2.

"For 80 percent of the people, Prop 2 was a referendum on 'How do you feel about black people?' " Grebner said.

Ann Arbor is one of the least segregated towns in the country, Grebner said. He said that because Ann Arbor has little separation between where different races of people live, there are high feelings of inclusion that led to high opposition of Proposal 2. Seventy-three percent of Ann Arbor voters voted against Proposal 2.

Compared with the Detroit metropolitan region, one of the most segregated cities in the country, Grebner said there is a much lower sense of racial exclusion in Ann Arbor.

"There are many sections of metro Detroit where a white face on the street would cause surprise," Grebner said.

The group surveyed 368 Asian Americans at polling places in the three cities. The poll was presented in nine Asian languages and 27 different dialects.

Glen Magpantay, an Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund staff attorney, also noted the high number of young voters, which he said is indicative of many Ann Arbor students turning out to the polls. Sixty-two percent of voters surveyed were between 18 and 29 years old.

According to 2000 Census data, people of Asian descent make up 1.8 percent of the state's population. In Hamtramck, though, 10.4 percent of people say they are of Asian descent. Just under 12 percent of Ann Arbor residents report Asian heritage. Dearborn, meanwhile, is 1.5 percent Asian.

The study also claims that Asian and Arab American voters faced difficulty when voting in last fall's election. In Dearborn and Hamtramck, Arab American voters struggled to find interpreters and bilingual information and poll workers refused to help, the study says. Asian American voters also reported a lack of adequately translated materials.

The study says about 57 percent of Arab and Asian American voters were required to show indentification in order to vote, even though the law says that only first-time voters need to show ID.

Magpantay said Asian-language voting instructions are often hung upside down or not displayed at all.

Language problems are a complex topic, Political Science Prof. Ann Chih Lin said. She said naturalized immigrants must pass an English test to become U.S. citizens, meaning all eligible voters can speak and understand English.

Lin said that despite English proficiency, the complex language in polling instructions and the political jargon of referendums can be confusing for non-native speakers. She also said that while election officials often cater to Hispanic voters, they struggle to cater to Asian voters because they are a much less-recognized minority.

Another problem is the number of different dialects of Asian languages, Magpantay said.