Boston Chinese, Vietnamese communities are fighting for the bilingual ballot

2/22/2008Boston - The bilingual ballot that has helped thousands of Chinese and Vietnamese voters cast their votes since 2005 without relying heavily on polling station interpreters will not be available for future elections, unless a new law is enacted, said Lydia Lowe, the executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association.

The association, which led the fight for the bilingual ballot in Chinese, is pushing to extend the law that allows the bilingual ballot. The formation of a 28-member organization Coalition for Asian American Voting Rights is part of that push.

The coalition decided to ask for a bilingual ballots law only in Chinese and Vietnamese and only in Boston, because of the current political atmosphere and anti-immigrant sentiments, Lowe said.

Lowe said a bilingual ballot extension can be introduced either by a state legislator or by a city, under a home-rule petition. "The home-rule petition falls under the state charter, but it's only applied to a certain city. We are thinking of the home-rule petition because it's asking the right of Boston voters to have this ballot. And that can be initiated by the mayor or by the Boston City Council," Lowe said.

With that decision, the coalition has sent petitions from supporters to elected officials and they have met with some of the politicians. Lowe said they even drafted legislation on bilingual ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese, which they started to circulate to some politicians. One clause of the draft says "fully bilingual ballots in English - Chinese, including transliteration of candidates' names, shall be provided in any polling place within the city of Boston."

The Boston Globe reported that with the 2005 bilingual agreement, the federal government required Boston to translate election ballots - including the candidates' names - into Chinese characters in precincts with prominent Chinese-speaking populations.

Boston had fully bilingual ballots in the last city election but the state did not translate the candidates' names into Chinese in the 2008 primary election ballot.

The Boston Globe also reported that the Secretary of State William F. Galvin supported the bilingual ballot but refused to have the names of the candidates translated into Chinese. He said translating them into Chinese would create chaos and imbalance in an electoral system that needs to be as precise as possible.

The coalition wants to meet with Galvin to explain its stance in hopes of preventing his opposition to the bilingual ballot. "He may have interpreted the law to not include Chinese names before, but we feel that he has the opportunity now to learn more about the issue," Lowe said. But Lowe said Galvin has declined to meet with the community. His press office didn't return an e-mail or a phone call seeking comments.

"I think the biggest problem is that it is not the biggest issue in the State House . . . . We may not have a lot of elected officials opposing it, but it will just sit there. And it may be hard to actually get voted through," Lowe said.

Sam Yoon, Boston city councilor at-large, who is a strong supporter of the bilingual ballot in Chinese, said in his e-mail, "Probably the biggest challenge is misinformed people. To somebody who knows little about the any of the Asian languages this seems like a non-issue. However, for those voters who speak one of these languages, this is critical."

Asked if the bilingual ballot would be passed in time for the national election, Yoon wrote, "It depends on how much support the Asian communities can get for this cause." He urged bilingual ballot supporters to write their elected representatives and "tell them how important this issue is.