POLL MONITORS, VOTER HOTLINE IN 8+ STATES FIND LANGUAGE
ASSISTANCE FOR ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS, BUT ALSO MISSING BILINGUAL POLL WORKERS, LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE ACCESS LAWS
Chicago- The Asian American Institute (AAI), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice dispatched 32 poll monitors to cover a total of 85 precincts across Cook County. AAI poll monitors were out in the field to ensure that federally-required language assistance was properly provided to Asian American voters and to protect against voter suppression tactics aimed at limited English speaking or immigrant voters.
In suburban Cook County, AAI’s team of 17 poll monitors covered 53 precincts mostly in areas located in the hotly-contested 8th Congressional district, whose population is over 12% Asian American. AAI’s team observed 42 precincts targeted by the Cook County Clerk’s Office for Asian Indian language assistance. Unlike the March primary, where materials were not delivered to polling places, Hindi-translated materials were confirmed by AAI poll monitors as having been delivered to the precincts targeted for Asian Indian language assistance. However, many polling places failed to display the translated materials, and election judges seemed unaware that their precinct should have them and was actually required by federal law to display them and proactively provide them to voters. In a large number of polling places, AAI’s poll monitors were the driving force behind locating Hindi-translated materials and ensuring that they were displayed to voters. Below are a couple of specific instances observed and reported by AAI poll monitors:
In Schaumburg Township, some bilingual election judges were observed as poorly trained and many failed to proactively assist potentially limited English speaking South Asian voters. In many precincts, Hindi hard copy ballots were not proactively presented by election judges as an option to South Asian voters, regardless of whether they spoke English or not.
In Palatine Township an election judge was reported as wrongly insisting that all voters show ID prior to voting, and prevented voters from bringing in palm cards that they wished to use in helping decide on how they should vote.
In the City of Chicago, AAI deployed a team of 15 poll monitors to observe how language assistance was being provided to both Chinese and South Asian voters. AAI poll monitored 32 total precincts, including 20 out of the 45 total precincts targeted by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners for Asian Indian language assistance. There were a few instances of missing bilingual election judges and Hindi-translated materials, but largely the Asian Indian language assistance was observed as being properly provided.
In addition to Asian Indian language assistance, AAI also poll monitored 11 polling places in Chicago with the largest expected number of Chinese-speaking voters. Unfortunately, many of the precincts targeted for Chinese language assistance were understaffed and ill-equipped to handle the election day rush of voters.For example, in the 25th Ward, precincts 14 and 18 lacked an adequate number of bilingual election judges to handle the number of voters requiring assistance. AAI Senior Staff Attorney Andy Kang noted, “We thank the Cook County Clerk’s Office and the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners for their hard work on complying with Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, but our poll monitoring on Election Day shows that there is still much more work to be done to improve the language assistance provided to AsianAmerican voters. There needs to be greater awareness by election judges and the community as a whole that Asian Indian and Chinese language assistance is required by federal law and shouldn’t be viewed as discretionary or charity. This is a voting rights issue. In the end, greater language access to the ballot box for more Illinois voters is a good thing for our democracy.”
As part of a national trend report the Asian American Justice Center released findings from over 8 states including Illinois. Across the board, monitors found that many polling sites provided adequate language access to limited-English proficient voters, and that election officials made an effort to address needs. However, enough polling sites had serious problems to indicate that further education and training is required. These problems included the lack of availability of bilingual poll workers and translated ballots,resistance to providing language assistance, and needing prompts from outside poll monitors before complying with language access provisions of the Voting Rights Act. AAI will be meeting with election officials, along with community members soon to follow-up on ways to improve language assistance, such as improving election judge training.
The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (www.advancingjustice.org) is comprised of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, DC(www.advancingequality.org), the Asian American Institute in Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org) in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (www.apalc.org) in Los Angeles. The mission of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice is to promote a fair and equitable society for all by working for civil and human rights and empowering Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities.
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The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (www.advancingjustice.org) is comprised of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, DC(www.advancingequality.org), the Asian American Institute in Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org) in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (www.apalc.org) in Los Angeles. The mission of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice is to promote a fair and equitable society for all by working for civil and human rights and empowering Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities.