U.S. House panel votes to retain bilingual ballots (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

U.S. House panel votes to retain bilingual ballots

Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau
May. 11, 2006 12:00 AM
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0511bilingual-ballots0511.html

WASHINGTON - A key House panel on Wednesday voted to continue requiring
bilingual ballots and translation assistance for voters in 31 states,
including help for Native Americans and Hispanics in Arizona who are
not fluent in English.

The House Judiciary Committee rejected efforts to cut the
language-assistance provision from a bill to renew the 1965 Voting
Rights Act, set to expire next year.

The action also signaled that, with legislation still pending to curb
illegal immigration and beef up border security, there is little
appetite among House Republican leaders to further upset Hispanic
voters in an election year.

"It wouldn't help them, and it could certainly hurt them. It would just
look like they were going overboard, especially on something as
important and sensitive as voting rights," said David Mark, a political
analyst and former editor of Campaigns & Elections magazine.

A House bill could be ready by Memorial Day. An identical 25-year voting
rights extension is being considered in the Senate. With support from
both chambers, a bill is expected to get President Bush's blessing and
be signed into law.

In Arizona, civil rights groups and others agreed language assistance
still is needed at the polls.

Under current law, polling places in all 15 Arizona counties must
provide Spanish-language assistance and ballots; those in nine counties
are required to also provide assistance in Native American languages.
Extending the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act will ensure
the services continue.

In addition, some Arizona jurisdictions this year will begin using
voting machinery with earphones for audible instructions in Spanish and
other languages to help voters understand the ballot and voting
procedures.

Added when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was revised in 1975, language
assistance is required when at least 5 percent of a jurisdiction's
citizens belong to a language minority group and the English illiteracy
rate exceeds the national average.

Lawmakers determined then that certain "language minorities," including
Spanish-speakers, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and Alaskan
Natives, faced similar problems as Blacks had in the South.

The landmark civil rights law initially was designed to end such tactics
as poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation used against Blacks.

Today, more than 300 counties and municipalities across the nation are
required to provide language assistance, mostly Spanish, at polling
places.

But dozens of other languages also are covered by the rules, and some
jurisdictions have multilingual requirements.

For instance, Apache County in Arizona must provide ballots and language
assistance in Spanish, as well as oral help for Apache, Navajo and
Pueblo voters.

In Los Angeles County in California, help is required to be provided in
Spanish, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

But Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, joined by 55 House Republicans, in February
wrote to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Judiciary chairman, urging that the
Wisconsin Republican let that section expire, in part because it
encourages a "linguistic division" of the country.

Among those signing the letter was Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. He has
been a longtime supporter of making English the official language of
the United States, said his spokesman, Matt Lambert.

On Wednesday, King formally proposed an amendment to strip the provision
from the voting act renewal bill.

He told fellow Judiciary Committee members that "reauthorizing the
multilingual voting mandate" contradicts the nation's immigration law
because knowledge of English is a condition of naturalization, and in
order to vote, a person must be a U.S. citizen.

But King's amendment was defeated by the committee, which includes
Arizona GOP Reps. Jeff Flake and Trent Franks. Flake was among 11
Republicans who opposed the amendment; Franks was among nine
Republicans who voted in favor of it.

"I'm just convinced that it is a good trend in our society that our
government have a common language," Franks said.

"My desire is to see everyone in this country, every citizen, to have
equal access to voting and to the polls. I believe that the best way to
provide a consistent, fair and just system is to have the voting
materials and ballots printed in a common language, which in America
should be English."

But Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Arizona, disagreed.

"Here you've got huge Latino populations, who are not yet proficient
enough in English to fully read and understand complicated ballot
questions and referendums in English," she said. "Keeping this
requirement will show that we are serious that every citizen can
participate fully."

Some Native American languages do not even have written forms, said John
Lewis, a Mohave member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes who is
executive director of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona.

Although increased educational opportunities have helped, Lewis said,
many Native Americans are more comfortable understanding concepts and
positions contained in ballot propositions when they are translated
orally for them.

"It's important that this (proposition) be extended," Lewis said.



Reach the reporter at 1-(202) 906-8136.