Voter guides tongue-tied (Due to mix-up, some recipients face unexpected language barrier)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 13 May 2006 | Kim Vo

[CounterCounterCulture]

Voter guides tongue-tied

DUE TO MIX-UP, SOME RECIPIENTS FACE UNEXPECTED LANGUAGE BARRIER

By Kim Vo
Mercury News

Charles Rogers speaks English, but his state voter guide came in Spanish. His son's arrived in an Asian language. And Rogers can't borrow his wife's -- she never got one.

``I like to have a pamphlet and sit and read. I study it for about a month before I make up my mind,'' the Sunnyvale homeowner said of the booklet that details candidates' statements and proposition arguments. ``It's really inconvenient to have something you can't understand.''

It wasn't clear Friday how widespread the problem was -- Santa Clara County officials say they've received one complaint, and they're looking into it. The state also says it received one complaint.

The problem might be linked to Santa Clara County's efforts to have voters pick their election materials' language. Since November 2004, the county has sent out cards and printed up absentee ballot envelopes asking voters whether they want their information in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese or Tagalog.

[CounterCounterCulture]

AY CARAMBA

[Lurker]

Let me guess. They no longer print ballots in English because some whackjob thought it was insensitive to Urdu speaking Pashtuns.

L

[auzerais]

I got my Santa Clara County, CA booklet today, and while it is in English, voting Republican is pretty meaningless as there is little left of anything resembling a Republican Party hereabouts.

[keats5]

Ah yes- the old constitutional right to have my voter's guide in my native language issue-

[CounterCounterCulture]

There are a few decent ones out there. I was doing a precinct walk today for Pete Constant for San Jose City Council. I also saw a guy running for Assembly District 24 (Lawrence Hileman) who doesn't mind being labelled a conservative. Then there are a few good candidates for statewide office.

But of course if you don't like any of the candidates, you should at the very least vote no on the propositions (81 & 82) and measure "A" (half-cent sales tax hike).

[kingu]

You know, the man should be gracious that he was able to participate in the multiculturalism that is California, and if he would stop trying to be an ignorant idiot, he would realize how important it is for him to learn a foreign language to understand his fellow Californians as well as official state communications...

I like to imagine that the above is sarcastic, but I'm sure you could find an actual quote from someone in the state that would match it..

[lancer]

``It's really inconvenient to have something you can't understand.''

I take it that this comment by an English speaker is lamenting his foreign-language voter form, but doesn't that sound just like the multicultural justification for printing government documents in a gazillion languages?

Since it's "really inconvenient" for them to read English, let's publish everything in all langauges...?

We are snake bit!

[tophat9000]

I alway love that at at my polling place in So Calif. that thay had a voter Help guide with an 800 Help hot line number for just about any language you could think of...

Each language had it's separate 800 Help hot line number ...

Except one... English...

That was a toll call to the 916 Sacramento area code