The Battle Over Bilingual Ballots: Language Minorities and Political Access Under the Voting Rights Act

In recent years, few federal requirements have been attacked as much as theVoting Rights Act's "bilingual ballot mandate." The Act's minority language assistanceprovisions were enacted in 1975 to remove language barriers to voting by prohibitingEnglish-only elections in certain covered jurisdictions. Some commentators condemn thelaw, and anti-immigrant rhetoric underlies many of their attacks: they argue that the provisions allow citizens to participate in American democracy without a knowledge of English and that they "violate the spirit of assimilation." Congressman Steve King of Iowa, who has led congressional efforts to repeal the provisions, even suggests that "bilingual ballots" are used to create "cultural enclaves" to allow civil rights groups to "control the immigrants."The battle over "bilingual ballots" promises to be controversial for the foreseeable future, as the number of immigrants continues to grow. Although the "bilingual ballot" provisions have been in effect for 32 years, no comprehensive study of them has been published. The purpose of this book is to fill that void.The book will begin by providing background on the provisions and their opponents, particularly English-only groups. It will then briefly examine the evidence of educational and voting discrimination against the four language groups covered by the Voting Rights Act: Alaskan Natives, American Indians, Asian language voters, and Spanish-language voters. The debate over the 2006 amendments to the Voting Rights Act will next be examined, including the record supporting renewal of the "bilingual ballot" mandate for another twenty-five years. That will be followed by a chapter addressing some of the most controversial components of the requirements, including their constitutionality, cost, effectiveness, and whether theybalkanize America along linguistic lines. It will conclude with case studies of how the"bilingual ballot" mandate has been enforced for the covered language groups in differentjurisdictions.The book will feature an appendix that will include a summary of federal law, a list of those who testified during congressional hearings, Census data showing the extent of the need for language assistance, and examples of bilingual voting materials.