Posted on 09/07/2018 4:46:17 PM PDT by simpson96
A federal judge on Friday ordered 32 Florida counties to provide sample Spanish language ballots that could help more than 30,000 Puerto Ricans, including many displaced by last year’s Hurricane Maria, to cast votes in the November election.
Chief Judge Mark Walker of the federal court in Tallahassee, the state capital, said failing to help eligible voters would likely violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which blocks states from conditioning the right to vote on an ability to understand English.
“Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” wrote Walker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. “Unique among Americans, they are not educated primarily in English - and do not need to be. But, like all American citizens, they possess the fundamental right to vote.”
The decision is a win for several non-profit groups promoting civic engagement in Hispanic communities, which last month sued Florida’s Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner and the elections supervisor in Alachua County, which includes the city of Gainesville.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Hopelessly old-fashioned I know, but really do think that knowing English should be a prerequisite for voting.
“Could result in.” Yawn. All pollworkers should ignore the speculative “order,” such as it is.
English proficiency is still required of immigrants for citizenship.
Great, Florida needs to contact PR and get their voter rolls and a list of PR candidates.
Seriously, why does there seem to be a steady stream of lousy decisions issued by lefty judges, with hardly a peep from normal jurists?
The right to vote should be, but is not, predicated on also being an informed person, in whatever is the chosen primary language.
Puerto Ricans are exposed to the English language all through their lives, it is unavoidable. That they choose not to become at least somewhat conversant in it is a serious character flaw, one that cannot be rectified in the short term.
The fact that Puerto Ricans are granted full US citizenship while residents of mainland US, also gives them full rights to exercise that citizenship, including the right to vote.
But also the responsibility to ACT like citizens. That includes being conversant with the language of the marketplace.
It’s your job to vote not the governments
If these Puerto Ricans are not Florida residents they should not be allowed to vote in Florida.
They have no obligation to help them, they are not part of Florida or any of those counties.
Judge ought to be hung from a lamppost.
They’re being brought into Florida especially. To try to swing the next vote. Might be sorozNazi money, it usually is. They’re u s citizens. We can thank presidrnt wilson for signing that law in 1917. Here is what I believe is the current statute ( subject to anyone here’s correcting this, of course) ——- “.
Sec. 302. [8 U.S.C. 1402] All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, and prior to January 13, 1941, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, residing on January 13, 1941, in Puerto Rico or other territory over which the United States exercises rights of sovereignty and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States as of January 13, 1941. All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States at birth.
And the “Kelo” decision gives the State the Right to seize the Judges personal residence for economic gain, the gain can be used to pay the costs of the judges order.
Better take every house in his tract.
That way it won’t look like a Bill of Attainder.
have to do it in Hudson county
NJ has Gujarati and Korean too
2016
Counties, cities and other jurisdictions required to translate election materials
he Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 was originally enacted to prohibit state and local governments from denying or abridging the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” a right guaranteed by the 15th Amendment. It applied to political jurisdictions with a history of denying such rights to black Americans and was specifically aimed at removing barriers to voter registration. It was intended to be a temporary remedy.
But in 1975, Congress greatly expanded the Voting Rights Act’s original intent by inserting special protections for “language minorities.” The language minorities singled out for protection under Section 203 of the Act were: American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and citizens of Spanish Heritage. For the first time in our history, states and counties with substantial populations of these protected language minorities were required to provide ballot and election materials in languages other than English.
Although the bilingual ballot provisions like other parts of the VRA were originally intended to be temporary remedies, they renewed in 1982, 1992, and again in 2006 for another 25 years.
https://proenglish.org/multilingual-ballots/
Way to insult the Puerto Rican community, yer honor!
I could help. How do you say in Spanish, “Republicans vote on Tuesday; Democrats vote on Wednesday.”?
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