What’s holding back some California voters from casting a ballot? Language barriers | Opinion

Around California, voters who use non-English languages face hurdles to understanding the voting process and the content on the ballot.

Under state law, voter materials are not required to be translated into commonly used languages, leaving thousands of voters without the support they need.

Our state’s diversity — ranging across backgrounds, religions and languages — is celebrated in our art, our communities and by our politicians. But the state’s diversity is not fully reflected in a critical place: our election laws.

California’s election laws only offer a patchwork solution. For example, Korean-speaking voters in Ventura County have no access to language services, even though the county has more than double the population of limited-English-proficient, Korean-speaking adults than Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara County, however, is required to offer sample ballots in Korean because this its community is more densely concentrated.

A recent Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies poll found that 66% of Californians believe that the state government has a responsibility to encourage voting participation among under-represented groups. Since federal and state language assistance exclude many communities, these voters have no guaranteed assistance and must fend for themselves when voting.

When voters are denied language assistance help, they are less confident in their choices — or, worse, they give up on the voting process altogether. Given that almost half of California residents speak a language other than English at home, the lack of adequate language assistance severely affects communities across the state. California’s population is projected to become more diverse, so by making investments today, we are in a better place to serve our growing diversity.

To identify the most effective solutions, our teams at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA) and the Asian Law Caucus — along with a broad coalition of civil rights and community organizations — spent over a year investigating how current laws create barriers to voting for people who use languages other than English.

On Sept. 26, our groups released a statewide road map for California lawmakers and the secretary of state’s office to embrace our full diversity and establish our state as a leader in multiracial, multilingual democracy.

The road map envisions a California where comprehensive language assistance is provided to large populations in languages beyond Spanish, Asian and Native American languages; votable ballots and registration forms are available in the languages used and preferred by smaller-sized communities; statewide standards exist for disseminating translated election materials, including how poll workers interact with voters who need language assistance; and community education funds are provided to local election officials and community local organizations that are trusted sources of information.

To develop the road map, our organizations heard directly from community members about what they need to be active, informed and confident voters.

“The ballot must be translated in Chinese,” said Sophie Zeng, a California resident who became a U.S. citizen in 2020 and primarily speaks Chinese. “Voting is inaccessible to many limited English proficiency community members, especially seniors that also have technology barriers.”

Due to a growing Arabic- and Somali-speaking community in San Diego County, PANA and its partners advocated for and convinced the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and Board of Supervisors to fund and make sample ballots in Arabic and Somali available. However, not every county has community organizations to advocate for translation services, which is why the state needs to take action now.

Our state road-map plan is rooted in proven solutions that are already helping voters in states like Michigan and Oregon as well as many California counties. To meet the needs of our increasingly diverse population, we must ensure that all voters have equal access and say in California’s future.

This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 6:00 AM.