(This article updates a
previous news item that ran last week.)
Arlington election officials in the coming decade will not
fall under under a federal mandate that localities provide election
materials in languages other than English, but nonetheless are
likely to begin using Spanish-language documents in time for the
Nov. 8 general election.
Federal census officials on Oct. 12 released the list of
communities that will fall under Section 203 of the Voting Rights
Act, requiring them to provide assistance if they meet the
following threshold:
* More than 10,000 voting-age citizens of a locality have
limited English proficiency, or if more than 5 percent of the
community’s voting-age citizens fall in that category.
* The percentage of voting-age citizens who have limited
English proficiency and have less than a fifth-grade education is
higher than the national average.
No Northern Virginia locality ever before fell under the
requirements, although election officials in Arlington prepared for
the possibility after the 2000 federal census. Based on 2010 census
figures, Fairfax County was the only jurisdiction in Virginia to
fall under the requirements, and will be obligated to provide
language assistance to Spanish-speaking residents.
While none of Virginia’s 133 other cities and counties will
fall under the requirements, state election officials will allow
the other jurisdictions to use materials in Spanish on a
local-option basis – a major change in existing policy.
“The State Board of Elections has been very proactive over the
past year in preparing for this probability,” said Arlington’s
General Registrar, Linda Lindberg, who has served on a state work
group addressing language-minority issues.
Susan Lee, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, says
Virginia officials have been getting prepared for months.
“We’re ready,” she said from Richmond on Oct. 6, as she and
her office awaited word on which Virginia localities would fall
under the federal requirements.
(State officials had been working with the possibility that
the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park also might fall under the
requirements to provide assistance to Spanish-speaking residents,
but they did not.)
Lee said state officials have been working to translate about
20 different forms and documents for voters into Spanish.
Jurisdictions that do not fall under the federal requirements will
have the opportunity to use the documents, but will determine
whether to use them at the local level, she said.
Members of the Arlington Electoral Board have been supportive
of providing documents in multiple languages, if they become
available.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to offer Spanish ballots, but we
will have registration and absentee applications, as well as a
variety of forms used at the polls on Election Day – far more than
what we have now,” Lindberg said.
County Board member Walter Tejada, who has been following the
issue through his leadership positions in the Association of Latino
Elected and Appointed Positions, said he was “delighted” that the
state would make materials available to all localities, but
wondered what had taken them so long.
“We’re talking about people who are American citizens,” Tejada
said. “We need to make it easier for people to come out and vote,
to give them full access for civic participation. It’s more than
about time for it.”
Even though most immigrants who take the citizenship test must
do so in English, that only guarantees a rudimentary knowledge of
the language, Tejada said. Having materials in a voter’s first
language “makes it a lot easier and clearer for the individual to
understand,” he said.
A decade ago, when Arlington officials thought they might end
up being covered by the federal mandate, election officials
recruited Spanish-speaking pollworkers and began “modest
translations” for items that included general informational
materials and signage.
“When it turned out we were not covered, we continued those
activities nonetheless,” Lindberg said.
Any translated documents slated for use by voters must go to
the U.S. Department of Justice for clearance under the federal
Voting Rights Act. Lee said the State Board of Elections has
notified officials at the Justice Department that the materials
will be coming; she does not anticipate any delay in getting them
approved.
State officials plan to provide an expanded roster of
documents, along with other language support, in time for the 2012
primaries and general election.
While Spanish is likely to be the only language involved this
year in Virginia, it is possible that documents also eventually
might be required to be issued in Korean and Vietnamese, Lee
said.
Under the 2006 congressional reauthorization of the Voting
Rights Act, the sunset date for its minority-language-assistance
provisions was extended to 2032. The 248 covered jurisdictions
based on 2010 census data represent 3.1 percent of all
jurisdictions in the nation, totaling 79.2 million voting-age
American citizens.
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