Bilingual Ballots Are Not a Good Idea

In Boston, Chinese-American "activists" want ballots translated into Chinese. The Massachusetts Secretary of State is not so keen on the idea. Story from USA Today.

Boston's 2008 presidential primary ballot could read like a bad Chinese menu.

There might be "Sticky Rice" in column A, "Virtue Soup" in column B and, in column C, "Upset Stomach."

Those could be choices facing some voters if the names of Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Hillary Rodham Clinton were converted into Chinese characters, according to Massachusetts' top election official. And that gives Secretary of State William Galvin heartburn.

On Tuesday, Galvin filed a challenge in federal court to a Justice Department agreement requiring that ballots be fully translated to protect the rights of Chinese-speaking voters.

Galvin says Chinese — which uses characters, not letters; has sounds with several meanings; and is spoken in several dialects — will create ballot chaos.

[...]

The federal government and some Asian-American activists disagree. Transliterating candidate names "is an effective way to allow voters to vote independently," unaccompanied by someone to translate, says Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson.

Ann Har-Yee Wong of Boston's Elections Advisory Committee says asking Chinese-speaking voters to read a candidate's name in English is "akin to a Boston cabdriver navigating the streets in Beijing while trying to read street signs only in Chinese characters."

That's a bad analogy. While in Rome, do as the Romans do. In other words, if you going to be a cab driver in a country, it might be wise to know the language in that country. Just a thought.

Margaret Fung of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund says: "If you take seriously that voters be able to exercise their vote and cast an informed ballot, then the election officials should" transliterate names.

I completely agree the actions of the Massachusetts Secretary of State. Having election ballots in languages other than English is a very bad idea. First off, one of the requirements of naturalization (becoming a citizen) is proficiency in English. If you're unable to vote on the ballot in English, aren't you showing a lack of proficiency in English?

I believe that all official government documents, including election ballots, should be in English. If not, I believe you create a contradiction to equal protection under the law. If you're going to give ballots in Spanish, what other languages will you have to provide? Japanese? Korean? Arabic? Gaelic? Basque? If all ballots aren't in the same language, some people may not get the convenience of a ballot in their language. Therefore, it could create unequal access to elections.

So, if all government official documents are in English, a clear and equal standard is set. And to be quite honest, if you've gone through the entire process of naturalization and still can't vote in English, the English proficiency standard is basically useless.

(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)