Census lists communities where Asian bilingual ballots will be required

One of the reasons that recent elections saw an increase in AAPI voters was  because of the availability of bilingual ballots and voting material.

The Census Bureau released its updated list of jurisdictions that are required by the federal Voting Rights Act to provide translated ballots, voting materials, and bilingual poll workers for specific language minority groups.

"This list of cities and counties is just a snapshot of the great diversity Asian Americans bring to America, and a reflection of the needs of the fastest growing population of any racial or ethnic group in the country," said Susana Lorenzo-Giguere, Senior Staff Attorney of the Democracy Program at Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“Voting is a sacred part of our democracy as Americans. For many Asian Americans who speak limited English, the lack of language assistance and bilingual ballots is an unfair barrier to participating in the electoral process," she continued. "The Voting Rights Act promises language access to Americans who cannot speak English well, and speak specific languages, including several Asian languages.

The Language Minority Provisions was included in the 1965 Voting Rights Act because Congress found that:

[T]hrough the use of various practices and procedures, citizens of language minorities have been effectively excluded from participation in the electoral process. Among other factors, the denial of the right to vote of such minority group citizens is ordinarily directly related to the unequal educational opportunities afforded them resulting in high illiteracy and low voting participation. 

The language provision is critical for Asian American voters, many of whom are limited English speaking. 

Congress declared that, in order to enforce the guarantees of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, it is necessary to eliminate such discrimination by prohibiting these practices, and by prescribing other remedial devices such as providing election material in the language of all voters.

The requirements of the law are straightforward: all election information that is available in English must also be available in the minority language so that all citizens will have an effective opportunity to register, learn the details of the elections, and cast a free and effective ballot.

As required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Act), as amended, this notice publishes the U.S. Census Bureau's Director's determinations as to which jurisdictions are subject to the minority language assistance provisions of the Act. As of this date, those jurisdictions that are listed in this Notice as covered by Section 203 have a legal obligation to provide the minority language assistance prescribed by the Act.

Earlier this year, AALDEF filed a Section 203 complaint against Hamtramck, Michigan over its failure to provide election materials and assistance in Bengali. As a result, the court entered a consent decree ordering Hamtramck’s Bengali language election program for four years. And in 2014, AALDEF filed a complaint against Philadelphia City Commissioners over denial of language access to voters under a municipal ordinance.

The bilingual information may be one of the reasons top officials of Hamtramck are Muslim including the five City Council members and the mayor.

The following jurisdictions are mandated to provide information and assistance in the specific Asian languages (with newly covered jurisdictions/languages in bold italics):

ALASKA
Aleutians West Census Area: Filipino
Kodiak Island Borough: Filipino

CALIFORNIA
Alameda County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino, Vietnamese
Contra Costa County: Chinese (including Taiwanese)
Los Angeles County: Cambodian, Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese
Orange County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Korean, Vietnamese
Sacramento County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Vietnamese
San Diego County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino Vietnamese
San Francisco County: Chinese (including Taiwanese)
San Mateo County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino
Santa Clara County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino, Vietnamese

HAWAII
Honolulu County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Filipino
Maui County: Filipino

ILLINOIS
Cook County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Asian Indian (including Sikh)

MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell city: Cambodian
Malden city: Chinese (including Taiwanese)
Quincy city: Chinese (including Taiwanese)
Randolph Town city: Vietnamese

MICHIGAN
Hamtramck city: Bangladeshi

MINNESOTA
Ramsey County: Hmong

NEVADA
Clark County: Filipino

NEW JERSEY
Bergen County: Korean
Middlesex County: Asian Indian (including Sikh)

NEW YORK
Kings County (Brooklyn): Chinese (including Taiwanese)
New York County (Manhattan): Chinese (including Taiwanese)
Queens County (Queens): Bangladeshi, Chinese (including Taiwanese), Korean, Asian Indian (including Sikh)

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia County: Chinese (including Taiwanese)

TEXAS
Dallas County: Vietnamese
Harris County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Vietnamese
Tarrant County: Vietnamese

VIRGINIA
Fairfax County: Vietnamese

WASHINGTON
King County: Chinese (including Taiwanese), Vietnamese

AALDEF conducts surveys in various Asian languages.

There are now 32 jurisdictions in 14 states mandated by Section 203 to provide voters with Asian language election information assistance, an increase of five jurisdictions from the Census Bureau’s determinations in 2016, consistent with the census reports showing that Asian Americans are the fastest growing population among all racial and ethnic groups in the United States in the last decade.

For the first time in the United States, the Hmong language is covered under the Voting Rights Act. Minnesota has the largest population of Hmong Americans, and newly covered Ramsey County, Minnesota, is the hometown and birthplace of U.S. Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee.

AALDEF especially welcomes the addition of the Chinese language in Philadelphia, and the Vietnamese language in Randolph, two of the nine new jurisdictions covered by Section 203 in which AALDEF has regularly conducted its multilingual exit poll of Asian American voters, the largest of its kind in the nation. AALDEF’s Asian American exit poll results were cited when Congress expanded the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act in 1992 to cover more Asian American communities.

When the Census certifies that 5% or more than 10,000 voting-age citizens in a town or county speak another language, are limited English speaking, and have a higher illiteracy rate than the national illiteracy rate, the jurisdictions must translate ballots, voter registration forms, voting instructions, and all other voting materials they provide in English. They must also provide translated oral assistance on election matters at polling places. The list of covered jurisdictions and the languages for translated voting materials is now updated every five years, as a result of the 2006 amendments to the Voting Rights Act.