Thread: Sensenbrenner backs keeping bilingual ballots

Immigration fire feeds on mandate extension
By CRAIG GILBERT
cgilbert@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 4, 2006
Washington - As a key figure in the push to renew the Voting Rights Act, Republican Jim Sensenbrenner is championing a provision that has drawn fire from some fellow conservatives in Congress: bilingual ballots.

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Under the landmark, decades-old voting law, some communities that have non-English speaking minorities must print their ballots in two or more languages.

More than 50 House Republicans signed a letter earlier this year opposing the requirements, saying they "encourage the linguistic division of our nation" and contradict the "Melting Pot" ideal.

Some local officials have also complained about the cost.

A supervisor from Orange County, Calif., told a House subcommittee Thursday that the requirements are burdensome and are also "creating an anti-immigrant backlash."

But there is broad support in Congress to re-authorize the voting rights law, including the language provisions that have been in effect since the 1970s. Those supporters include Sensenbrenner, who in the past has endorsed bills to make English the "official language" of the U.S. government.

"I have always said that English is the language of commerce and people who came from countries where English is not the first language, if they want to achieve the American dream, had better learn how to speak and function in English," the Wisconsin lawmaker said Wednesday.

"But this deals with the right to vote, and these people are United States citizens," Sensenbrenner said. "They aren't illegal immigrants, but they've gone through the process and they have been naturalized and it seems to me these people should not be confused because they don't have the proper instructions on how to vote (for) the candidates of their choice."

The language requirement is a complicated one. But it basically requires localities and even states to provide language assistance under certain conditions. One threshold is when 5% of the voting age population belongs to a single-language minority group and has limited proficiency in English. Another is when 10,000 or more citizens in a jurisdiction meet that test. The government uses formulas and population data to determine when the requirements apply.

Under the law, almost 500 political jurisdictions - and the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas - have been required to print ballots in other languages.

The language minority groups that are covered under the law are American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaskan natives and citizens of Spanish heritage.

Wisconsin is one of a minority of states in which no jurisdictions are required to print bilingual ballots.

But State Elections Board chief Kevin Kennedy said Thursday that he expected some parts of the state to be required to print Spanish and Hmong ballots after the next census. Kennedy also said the state already had hired Spanish and Hmong translators for its new voter registration system that goes on line this fall.

5 different languages
No lawmakers spoke against the ballot provisions at a House hearing Thursday. But the witness from California, Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, complained sharply about the law and the way it is being applied by the Justice Department. Norby said Orange County would have to print ballots in five languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean) and might have to add in the future Tagalog, Hindi, Farsi and others. He said the costs in a single election cycle could reach $20 million.

Norby also said the ballot rules could fuel a political backlash.

But supporters said having bilingual ballots had boosted turnout among minority groups and aided voters whose English might be sufficient to meet a citizenship test but not to decipher complicated referendum questions.

The Voting Rights Act as a whole has occasioned a rare convergence of backers behind its renewal, including lawmakers on both sides of the heated immigration debate, which has touched on similar issues of assimilation.

Sensenbrenner has been a lightning rod in that debate, thanks to the House bill he crafted that is passionately opposed by Latino and civil rights groups. But he has been a longtime advocate of the Voting Rights Act and even teamed up Wednesday with Senate Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts to promote the measure in a conference call with reporters.

Leaders of both parties in both chambers - normally at loggerheads - gathered Tuesday to announce the bill's introduction.

"I've never seen anything quite like that," said LaShawn Warren, legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union and one of the bill's supporters.

The House Republicans who oppose the bilingual ballot provision sent a joint letter to Sensenbrenner in early February, saying "multilingual ballots . . . divide our country, increase the risk of voter error and fraud, and burden local taxpayers."


http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=420938

Does that mean I can demand ballots be printed in Swahili, or how about Cherokee, or maybe Klingon? What the heck, if they can get them in Spanish and other languages, why not?