Posted on 08/08/2005 10:53:38 AM PDT by SpinyNorman
Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2005 - A new report released today, the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, underscores the importance of providing access to the ballot for Asian Americans with limited English proficiency.
The report, "Sound Barriers: Asian Americans and Language Access in Election 2004," details the barriers faced by Asian Americans who voted during last year's elections. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost three million Asian Americans turned out to vote on Nov. 2, 2004.
The report, released by NAPALC and its affiliates, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, and the Asian American Institute in Chicago, details their observations of 466 polling stations in Illinois, Texas, Washington, and California during the 2004 election.
Eight of the counties in these states are covered by Section 203, the language assistance provision of the Voting Rights Act. Section 203 is intended to provide limited English-speaking Asian, Latino, Native American, and Alaskan native speakers with the same information and opportunities as the English-speaking public so that they can vote. This provision will expire in 2007 and NAPALC and its affiliates are working to have it re-authorized by Congress.
"Sound Barriers" draws attention to the continuing problems experienced by Asian American voters at the polls and recommends solutions to eliminate them. Although officials in the counties monitored expressed their interest in complying with Section 203, compliance was uneven.
Among the common problems encountered by Asian American voters with limited English proficiency (LEP) in these polling sites were:
* Poll workers were frequently reluctant to help, were unaware of how to help, or were suspicious of bilingual poll workers and LEP voters. In Los Angeles County, CA, a poll worker sent an Asian American voter to the back of the line for "causing too much trouble" due to the voter's limited English proficiency. * About 46 percent of the polling sites monitored had multilingual materials but these were inaccessible to those who needed them. In 96 polling stations, there were no instructions in other languages on how to use the voting machines, the sample ballots or even directional signs. * Many poll workers did not understand why multilingual materials were necessary. In Cook County, IL, one election judge who could not understand a voter said that the voter should learn to speak English. * In many of the polling sites, there were no signs indicating the availability of interpreters and bilingual poll workers were not identified as such. About 50 percent of the poll workers in Chicago, Cook County, IL, and 62 percent of the bilingual poll workers in King County, WA, did not wear badges indicating their language ability.
These polling sites were required to provide language assistance in Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean. As of 2002, 16 counties in 7 states throughout the nation are required to provide language assistance under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Eleven of them were required to provide language assistance in Asian languages for the first time.
To overcome the barriers encountered by Asian American voters, the researchers recommended the following solutions:
* Improve the training of poll workers. Poll workers need to be trained more thoroughly about voting laws so that they can be more helpful. Problematic poll workers and those who discriminate should be removed from the polling site immediately. * Increase voter education outreach with the help of community organizations. In Asian American communities, this will streamline the voting process and decrease voting time. * Increase accessibility of multilingual materials for LEP voters. Require the polling supervisor to periodically check that multilingual materials are sufficiently stocked and are easily accessible and visible. * Increase the recruitment of bilingual poll workers across the board. This can be done in consultation with community organizations and the ethnic media.
The Department of Justice reports that enforcement of and compliance with Section 203 and other provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) resulted in an increase in the number of Asian Americans voting. In San Diego County, voter registration among Filipino Americans increased by 20 percent and 40 percent for Vietnamese Americans. In Harris County, TX, turnout among Vietnamese American voters doubled following the DOJ's efforts to ensure compliance with the VRA.
The 466 polling stations monitored in "Sound Barriers: Asian Americans and Language Access in Elections 2004" were in Cook County, IL; Harris County, TX; King County, WA; and in California, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Mateo County, San Diego, and Santa Clara.
Aside from NAPALC, APALC, AAI, and the ALC, research for the report was also conducted by VN Team Works, Chinese Information Service Center, Asian American Legal Center, the Council of Philippine American Organizations, the Asian Law Alliance, and the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance.
The costs associated with providing multi language brochures, ballots and translators are unnecessary and should not be an issue. How hard is it to recognize a name on a ballot, or a YES or NO box on a referendum question? And who knows what the translators are telling them? Who watches them? Are they telling the voters HOW to vote and who to vote for, taking advantage of their lack of English proficiency?
Ballot workers are mostly volunteers and usually senior citizens, and having to deal with all of this crap just taxes an already shaky system.
It is just another abuse of the system that liberals will use to their crooked advantage. Think about this the next time your municipality/state/federal government raises your taxes.
Oh, puh-leeze, the last thing Indians need to do is to start whining, bitching and moaning.
Can't read the ballots. Learn English, babu! How frigging hard is that?
I hate this victimisation crap some lawyers and lefties seem to be pushing on Indians. No reason except their own perceptions and desire to mimic the whingeing of other groups.
JMO, but most Indians in America would laugh at these idiots. Too bad they seem to be gaining traction.
Patience is running way short with this crap. disenfranchisement. voter irregularities. It's a wonder half the people here can take a s*** in the morning without having instructions trnalsted in their native language. If you can't speak/read english, how can you possibly understand a politicians platform or make a judgement on who to vote for unless someone tells you...or gives you cigarettes and a ride to the poll
If they have limited proficiency in English, they shouldn't be citizens ...period.
Far easier for immigrants to learn to speak English than for poll workers to have to learn to speak every single other language in the world to acommodate non-English speaking voters.
Learn English or pack your stuff. We don't need to be trying to run this country in 300 third world languages out of misguided respect for third world cannibal cultures.
If your culture is so wonderful, stay there. Don't bring the same crap you fled and try to inflict it on us.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Want to see some really leftist preaching? Read "Little India!"
Naturally, it has to be a free publication, but it is infesting areas with high Indian populations, like Iselin, NJ.
They plug Indian assistants to Gore, but virtually ignore Bobby Jindal, or write an article describing him as a "coconut!"
I have written to the editor several times, but he takes the liberal's way out, and never responds.
The agreement should be that, when it comes to naturalized American citizens, say from Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, etc., they should be afforded the same amount of poll access and also have the same amount of translation services (ballots in the above languages) to mirror and reflect the exact same conditions or percentages that reciprocal efforts are made by Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, etc. to allow poll access and ballot materials/assistance in English for voters of American background who are casting votes in those countries as naturalized citizens.
That seems the fair, equitable and most reciprocal way to go.
No racism, no hate, just good common sense determined entirely by the numbers.
You forgot about the $$$. Lawyers gotta eat too.
Could this type of problem be considered voter intimidation? Is it not against the law for "get out the vote" groups that take buses and vans around to pick up voters and take them to the polls to talk to them on the ride about who to vote for?
Bump!
I feel your pain. I've dealt with a fair amount of Indians involved with Democrats. Their are so doctrinaire in their "open mindedness and tolerance" that one literally holds it down.
Yup, I've taken apart some young PC chick a couple of times. I know, like Jindal, they're calling me coconut. Idiots.
Exactamundo BUMP.
This is like crashing a dinner party and then complaining about the food. Get! Out!
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