November Elections to be Held in Minority Languages in 30 States

Los Angeles County is urging its citizens to vote, vota, bumoto or hay bo phieu. In fact, residents there will have seven languages to choose from when they cast their ballots on Election Day: English, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Los Angeles is among 296 counties and municipalities across the country required by law to offer multilingual ballots because the local population is so diverse. A decade ago, only 248 counties had to offer bilingual or multilingual ballots under the federal Voting Rights Act. A new list was issued at the end of July, dropping some places but adding 75 others and creating challenges for elections officials.

Bilingual Elections Creating Challenges
In some counties facing the requirements for the first time, a scramble is on to find bilingual poll workers. Others are wondering how to produce ballots in American Indian languages that emphasize spoken over written formats. Several counties are worried about extra costs.

Critics, meanwhile, say English is America's language and providing services in other tongues fosters division. Proponents contend language assistance protects minorities and encourages them to exercise their right to vote.

"Every vote counts, as the 2000 Florida elections showed, and it is critical that those who are limited English-proficient be able to cast their vote," said Glenn Magpantay, staff attorney of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.

The federal law applies to counties and municipalities where either 10,000 people or more than 5 percent of voting-age citizens speak a minority language. That group must have an illiteracy rate above the national average, and it must have members who report on census forms they don't speak English very well.

All election services the counties provide in English -- absentee and regular ballots, instructions, voter information pamphlets -- must also be supplied in the minority language. The counties must also hire poll workers who speak the minority language. Communities in 30 states must comply with the law.

In Denver County, Colo., officials are worried about finding 200 bilingual poll workers by November, said Alan McBeth, spokesman for the Denver Election Commission. So far, they've got just 60.

Officials also haven't figured out how to fit a Spanish-language version of the ballot on voting machines' electronic screens, which can display only a limited amount of text, McBeth said.

Election Commissioner Jan Tyler estimates Spanish assistance will add up to $80,000 to the more than $500,000 it now costs to conduct an election. Denver will comply with the requirements, but Tyler -- the granddaughter of Polish immigrants -- doesn't agree with them.

"It's un-American to have to print ballots in other languages," she said. "I empathize completely with the immigrant experience. I still believe that people should learn to speak the language."


Spoken Languages Also Problematic
Elections officials in 17 states where American Indian languages are spoken face their own set of problems.

Many American Indian tribes have only recently adopted written forms of their languages, said Inee Yang Slaughter, executive director of the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, N.M.

Slaughter said it might be more effective in some cases to translate the ballots orally, "because the written format is fairly new for many people -- especially, perhaps, the elders."

In South Dakota, Roberts County Auditor Dawn Sattler is hoping for guidance on providing materials in Sioux at a meeting with the Justice Department later this month.

"I have no clue," what to do, she said. "If it's hard to write it down, how are you supposed to have your ballots printed up?"


Cost Goes Up
Some counties have to provide ballots in three or more languages. In Santa Clara County, Calif., for example, the election will be held in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

Los Angeles' seven options are the most. Its March primary cost $22.6 million, including about $3.3 million to produce multilingual ballots and hire bilingual poll workers, said Grace Chavez, spokeswoman for the registrar of voters.

Washington, D.C.-based U.S. English Inc., says money spent on language assistance could be better used to teach newcomers English.

"We've always been able to communicate with one another through a common language, English," said spokeswoman Valerie Rheinstein. "You start whittling away at that, and you're going to have problems."

Francisca Nunez, 65, is looking forward to using a Spanish-language ballot when she votes in Montgomery County, Md., in November.

"It's good that they translate the ballot," said Nunez, who moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic more than 20 years ago. "A lot of people don't go to vote because the vote is not in Spanish and they don't understand."

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