Voting Rights Act Expands Bilingual Voting Assistance to More Communities

The Voting Rights Act has expanded its Section 203 to require election officials to provide bilingual voting materials and assistance to Asian Americans, Latinos, American Indians and Alaskan Natives.

The Section 203 of the Voting Rights Acts provides electoral process assistance to communities with large numbers of people with limited English proficiency.

According to Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, Section 2013 aims to effectively reach protected voters by determining what languages or dialects are commonly used within a community.

“Under Section 203, a successful program should be tailored to needs of the local language minority community, after close and ongoing consultation with that community. Even within the same county, what works best to reach one language minority community may not work as well to reach others in a different community,” Clarke said.

With the inclusion of more minority speakers, community leaders share their support to regarding the announcement.

Full article published on Hawaii Filipino Chronicle, a local English-language Filipino newspaper in Honolulu, Hawaii.