People vote in dozens of languages in California, and it’s the state’s responsibility to protect people’s right to vote no matter the language they speak. To do that, it has voter assistance in ten languages, and several counties offer help in even more.
Sietse Goffard with the Asian Law Caucus — a civil rights group based in San Francisco — said immigrant voters are the most likely to vote by mail.
“It gives them time at home to be able to go through their ballots, perhaps study it with their relatives,” he said.
But if they do vote in person, they’ll find assistance that’s required by federal and state law, depending on the language they speak and how common it is in their community. That can include multilingual pollworkers, who will have buttons to identify what they speak.
There’s also headphones for those who are unable to read or see their ballot.
“You can plug it in and listen to, for example, a translated version of that ballot if that county is covered under certain language thresholds,” Goffard said.
But he also said one of the most important resources a voter whose primary language isn’t English can have is a friend.
“People do have the right to bring a friend, a family member, really anyone else of their choosing,” he said. The person cannot, however, bring someone who represents their employer or labor union.
Goffard said a phone is also OK, as long as they don’t take photos of other voters or equipment.
“If they need to use a Google translate tool to translate something or they want to use their phone to look something up when they're reading through the ballot, that's also perfectly allowed,” he said.
He also said if you can’t get a ballot in your own language, you can sometimes get a facsimile ballot that lines up with the English one. But he thinks there should be more help available.
“It really speaks to the need and the importance of multilingual ethnic media or local journalism to be able to help educate people about all the different races and ballot measures they’re voting on,” he added.
Goffard said, for now, those resources are definitely lacking in the state.
For more information about what’s available, contact your county elections office.
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