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Bilingual Ballot Provisions of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965
An Overview
Background
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 was originally enacted to prohibit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 were renewed in
1982, and again in 1992 when Congress voted to extend all the temporary
provisions of the Act. Unless Congress extends them again, they will expire
in August 2007.
Legal Requirements
Sec. 203 of the VRA states that if a covered jurisdiction "provides
registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other
materials of information relating to the electoral process, including
ballots, it shall provide them in the language of the applicable minority
group as well as in the English language (VRA)."
Covered Jurisdictions
A jurisdiction is covered under Sec. 203 if the number of U.S. citizens
of voting age and of a single language minority group is:
· 10,000 or more; or
· More than five percent of all voting age citizens in that jurisdiction
The language assistance requirements of Sec. 203 are triggered if either
condition is met.
For more about this issue, please visit these pages:
Five Reasons To Oppose Bilingual Ballots
Newsletter stories about Bilingual Ballots
from The ProEnglish Advocate
ProEnglish Executive Director K.C. McAlpin's testimony to the U.S. Congress:
---Written testimony (.pdf) (.html)
---Oral testimony (.html)
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