Republicans stall Voting Rights Act to kill bilingual help for voters
06.25.06 - Posted by AsiansVote
In his latest Chicago Tribune column, Clarence Page notes that the GOP is trying to kill the Voting Rights Act in part because of "the law's requirements that foreign-language ballots and interpreters be provided in precincts where substantial numbers of voters are struggling with English." The issue affects Asian Americans voters and candidates directly. Page notes:
In 2003, election officials in suburban Harris County, outside Houston, failed to provide bilingual assistance to Vietnamese voters, who had grown to almost 2 percent of the county population. The Justice Department and Asian-American legal-aid organizations worked out an agreement that resulted in bilingual assistance and other reforms. In the wake of those changes, Harris County elected its first Vietnamese candidate, Democratic businessman Hubert Vo, to the Texas state legislature in November 2004.
This should be an eyeopener to Asian Americans who think the Republicans are only agitated about
illegal immigrants. As Page argues, GOP leaders appear to have non-English speaking
citizens in their sights as well:
That language issue is an odd spillover from the ongoing debate over illegal immigration and has no rational place in a debate about voting rights. After all, voters are citizens, regardless of their origins. Any assistance, linguistic or otherwise, that helps citizens exercise their right to vote should be applauded, not exploited by demagogues.
The Asian American Justice Center has an
action alert page with details about how to contact your representatives and suggestions of points to make in support of the Voting Rights Act. The action alert is a few weeks out of date, but the talking points still apply.
More details at the Washington Post.
06.25.06 |
Candidates & Leaders
,
Hubert Vo
,
Immigration
,
Issues
,
Voting Rights & Responsibilities
