Founded by the Center for Investigative Reporting
Alameda agrees to help Chinese-, Spanish-speaking voters
All voting materials in Alameda County must be available in Chinese, Spanish and English, according to an agreement between the county and the federal government announced yesterday.
Among other stipulations of the agreement, the county must appoint coordinators for Chinese- and Spanish-language election programs, form a community advisory group and hire more bilingual election officials to ensure voters who speak limited English have fair access to the polls.
“The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and language barriers should never keep citizens from accessing that right,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. The “agreement ensures that Alameda County’s Spanish- and Chinese-speaking citizens will be able to cast an effective ballot and successfully participate in the electoral process. I congratulate Alameda County for their earnest cooperation in resolving this matter.”
The agreement follows allegations by the federal government that the county neither employed an appropriate number of bilingual poll officials nor adequately translated and distributed election-related materials, including ballots, registration forms and information found on the county’s website.
Dave Macdonald, registrar of voters in Alameda County, was not available for comment yesterday.
This is not the first time the federal government has filed suit against Alameda County over voters’ rights – in 1995, it sued regarding the rights of Chinese-speaking voters with limited English skills. An agreement reached in that case expired at the end of 2000.
Because of its large Chinese and Hispanic populations, Alameda County has been required to provide all election materials in English, Spanish and Chinese since 1992, in compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.
According to the 2010 Census, Hispanic and Latino residents made up 22.5 percent of the county’s population, and the American Community Survey estimates about 8.8 percent of its population was of Chinese descent in 2009.
Slightly more than 40 percent of Alameda County residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to 2009 estimates.
Within 30 days of the agreement, officials must enlist organizations to contact all voters with Spanish and Chinese last names in the county and pass on information about election materials in their native languages.
Leading up to Election Day, two new county employees will coordinate Spanish- and Chinese-language election programs, organizing the translation of election materials and exploring the best ways to publicize their availability within the Spanish- and Chinese-speaking communities. An advisory group of community members and organizations also will meet regularly to discuss needed improvements.
Come Election Day, bilingual election officials must be present in each county precinct where 10 or more voters have requested voting materials in Spanish or Chinese, as well as in each precinct with 100 or more registered voters with Spanish last names or 35 or more with Chinese last names.
Federal observers will monitor the county’s elections until at least November 2014 and could continue until March 2017 if the county does not meet compliance levels before then.
No comments:
Post a Comment