Congressman King Wants Ballots In English Only
Western Iowa’s Congressman Steve King has helped stall the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. King wants to remove a provision that requires ballots be prepared in other languages if more than 5% of the voters in the jurisdiction routinely speak the other language.
This probably doesn’t happen in his district. He says it is an unfunded mandate and a divisive practice that runs counter to the melting pot theory of American history. Eighty Representatives joined in King’s effort.
One must be a citizen to vote. And to become a citizen one must show proficiency in English. So why do any voters need non-English ballots? Judiciary chairman Sensenbrenner points out that anyone BORN in the USA is a citizen, even if born to non-citizen parents or Indian or Alaskan native parents who don’t speak English. He says most of the voters who don’t speak English were born here. So this is not a case of pandering to foreigners unwilling to learn the dominant language. It is a case of accommodating our citizens who have the freedom to speak whatever language they want.
Thus opponents of current hispanic immigration have joined old racists of the South to derail one of the proudest pieces of federal legislation—the bill that ended literacy tests and other roadblocks to voting. House Republicans never bring up a bill unless it is supported by more than 50% of the Republican members. That appears to be the bump in the once smoothly paved road to renewal of the VRA.
June 25th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
I am surprised didn’t take it a step further and require that all ballots be printed on white paper.
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:11 am
In states that have ballot initiatives (not Iowa) ballots in one’s native language are probably much appreciated by those trying to decipher the often complex language.
This fall in Michigan there is going to be a ballot initiative that was intentionally written to fool the reader into thinking that it strengthens affirmative action when it actually dilutes it significantly. Imagine trying to hack your way through that in your non-native language.