Home Contra Costa County Voters Will See New Language on Election Materials, Including Chinese

Voters Will See New Language on Election Materials, Including Chinese

by ECT

Contra Costa County voters will see an additional language on their voting materials starting this year, as the Contra Costa Elections Division adds Chinese to the current English and Spanish. This means that the official ballot and Voter Information Guide will appear in all three languages.

Voters in the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District and the Diablo Community Services District have a special vote-by-mail election on March 6 and will be the first to see the trilingual materials when they receive their ballots in the mail next week. incorporation of Chinese will appear on all voting materials beginning in June.

Written material will be in traditional Chinese and the Elections Division will provide audio language assistance in Cantonese and Mandarin.

The addition of Chinese comes as a result of the county’s population growth and corresponding shift in demographics. As the population changes, so do the language needs of local voters. When 10,000 voters or 5 percent of the county’s voting age citizens speak a specific language, the Federal Voting Rights Act requires that language be included on all election materials. At the end of 2016, the Department of Justice informed us that we crossed that threshold for Chinese.

“We look forward to meeting the needs of all of our voters,” said Joe Canciamilla, Contra Costa County Registrar of Voters.   The Contra Costa Elections Division continues to engage with local community groups to ensure language access for all voters.

For more information, visit our website at www.cocovote.us.

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5 comments

Old Pittsburg/Antioch Hwy Border Feb 6, 2018 - 8:54 am

I have read a story that has existed for thousands of years. The story of The Tower of Babel. The common theme of the story is the confusion and the impossibility to work together towards a common goal. The cause is the end to a common language and the enforcement that all languages be spoken in all tasks. A simple story that has held true in humanity’s time of earth.

Elizabeth Feb 6, 2018 - 2:29 pm

I thought that in order to vote in this country, one had to be a citizen of this country and part of the requirement is to be able to function in the ENGLISH language! So, what’s with this multi-language practice? If they cannot read a ballot in English, then they should not be allowed to vote!

Lola Saavedra Feb 6, 2018 - 8:40 pm

Are we know going the way of Canada? Since when are we a dual (or more) language country? Trump should sign an executive order making the USA’s official language to be ENGLISH!

Dirty Harry Feb 7, 2018 - 10:31 pm

So is all the material inside from the politicians and propositions going to be written in all these languages that keep getting added in addition to English? Pretty soon it will be as thick as a phone book. Isn’t this a waste of paper Democrats. I thought you people were for the enviroment. California, another example of showing horrible state of the nation leadership.

Lib Destroyer Feb 8, 2018 - 3:05 pm

I guess in this guy’s estimation, the Chinese are not able to earn the English language?

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