<div dir="ltr"><b><font size="4">Election officials testify they work hard to help Native language speakers</font></b><br><br>Richard Mauer<br><br>July 1, 2014<div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large">
​US​</div><br><br><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large">​<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">Two state election officials spent most of Tuesday testifying about the efforts they make to assist Native language speakers at village polling places.</span></div>
<br>Defending themselves against a voting rights lawsuit, the officials said they’ve translated difficult ballot measures, put notices on local radio stations and VHF village radio, and recruited bilingual workers and trained them to assist mainly elderly voters who struggle with English.<br>
<br>“We do our very best in recruiting bilingual outreach workers,” said Becka Baker, elections supervisor for the Nome region. “We sometimes call everybody in a village trying to recruit election workers.”<br><br>Baker is one of four named defendants in the federal lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund on behalf of two village elders in Southwest Alaska and four federally recognized village tribes.<div>
<br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large">​Access full article below: </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"><a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140701/election-officials-testify-they-work-hard-help-native-language-speakers">http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140701/election-officials-testify-they-work-hard-help-native-language-speakers</a>​</div>
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