Multilingual Ballots Mandated in All English Speaking Town

How many more communities will be forced to undertake this un-American policy?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The era of forced multilingual ballots hit a new low when the town of Briny Breezes, Fla. was forced to print election notices in Spanish despite the fact that everyone speaks English. Federal law required the leaders of the small oceanfront community to provide bilingual election information to its residents – even when there was no election to hold.

Briny Breezes has gotten caught up in the ugly tentacles of the Voting Rights Act, which requires all towns in a county to print ballots in foreign languages when the number of foreign language speakers rises above a certain threshold. Two years ago, Palm Beach County was informed that more than five percent of its voters were Spanish speaking, forcing each of the county’s 37 municipalities to print ballots in Spanish and provide bilingual poll workers.

“This is the epitome of government multilingualism gone amok,” said U.S. English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica. “How many communities will have to throw away precious tax dollars to fund unnecessary multilingual services?”

Census statistics demonstrate the lack of need for multilingual ballots in Briny Breezes. The town is home to 411 people, nearly 98 percent of who are citizens and 99 percent who speak English “very well.” At 70.3 years, the median age of a Briny Breezes resident is nearly double the U.S. average of 35.3 years. Nevertheless, the community was required to print a double sided notice – one side in English, the other in Spanish – to inform residents that an election would not be held because no one challenged the incumbents.

“The use of multilingual ballots goes against common sense,” explained Mujica. “If we limit the right to vote to our citizens, and immigrants must pass English proficiency tests, why would a voter need a multilingual ballot? Furthermore, how can an individual who is unable to understand English language campaigning cast an informed ballot? Perhaps this is why so many bilingual ballots are never used.”

In 2002, King County, Washington prepared 3,600 Chinese ballots for a primary election and received only 24 completed votes, a paltry 0.67 percent rate of return. For the general election two months later, only 109 ballots were cast using the Chinese translation.

“Los Angeles and New York City spend millions of dollars to provide ballots in other languages,” explained Mujica. “These funds could be far better spent providing English classes and other programs to help immigrants learn our common language.”

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.