Bilingual Ballots and Language Assistance for Asian Americans

A message from our friends at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund:

Dear friends:

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) has compiled multilingual fact sheets regarding election language assistance in 10 Asian languages.

As you may know, in October of 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the new jurisdictions and languages covered under the Language Assistance Provisions (Section 203) of the federal Voting Rights Act.  Section 203 requires covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance so that limited English proficient Americans can effectively participate in the electoral process.

As a result, 22 counties in eleven (11) states are now required to provide bilingual ballots, interpreters at poll sites, and other translated materials in Asian languages.  AALDEF’s multilingual fact sheets explain the law’s requirements, its benefits, and how to report problems to ensure that all Asian Americans can fully exercise their right to vote.  Our fact sheets are available in the following languages:

·  English
·  Chinese
·  Korean
·  Vietnamese
·  Filipino (Ilocano)
·  Filipino (Tagalog)
·  Japanese
·  Bengali
·  Hindi
·  Urdu
·  Punjabi

We are delighted that more Asian Americans will be able to exercise their right to vote through this expansion and hope that you all find these community fact sheets useful.

For more information, please contact me at [email protected] or 212-966-5932.

Best,

Chi-Ser Tran
Voting Rights Organizer
[email protected] x251