Gilroy
– If voters didn’t have enough to chew on before heading to the
polls in November, Santa Clara County will confront them with one
more question – but this one’s a gimme.
Gilroy – If voters didn’t have enough to chew on before heading to the polls in November, Santa Clara County will confront them with one more question – but this one’s a gimme.
Voters who speak Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Tagalog – the county’s four most common languages other than English – have the option of receiving sample ballots and voter information in their preferred language, or only in English.
Currently, voters receive bilingual ballots that contain information in both English and their target language. An overwhelming majority of the county receives English/Spanish ballots.
County Registrar Jesse Durazo said the new procedure is intended to increase efficiency while providing all voters with complete information.
The change stemmed from a county deficit that caused departments to re-evaluate the efficiency of programs, said Gwendolyn Mitchell, the county executive’s director of public communication. The registrar was charged with finding a way to balance the costs of ballot production while upholding the county’s reputation as a leader in bilingual voting.
A number of legal and community organizations, including a 15-member Voting Rights Advisory Committee, studied the issue for several months. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the final recommendation Aug. 17.
Some voting rights organizations were concerned that separating voting materials by language might send a divisive message to non-English speaking voters, perhaps suggesting their political participation isn’t as valuable. But Durazo said he believes the effect will be just the opposite.
“The challenge was, how can we make a change that is more business efficient, yet not disenfranchise any of our voters?” Durazo said. “We want to make sure all voters have the best, most complete, intelligent information. That’s a top priority.”
Durazo said the change will mean a “substantial amount of savings” for the county due to reduced printing costs, but it will take a few years for the county to see a net gain in savings.
Additionally, Durazo hopes presenting information in only one language will help personalize the voting process and make people feel more comfortable when voting.
David Sung, a Korean who moved to Gilroy 28 years ago, said he thinks the voting process is too confusing and the current bilingual ballots don’t do much to help. Although he speaks English well, Sung said he’d better understand voting procedures if he could read the information completely in Korean – but his language is not among the county’s four most prevalent.
“They need to make (the voting process) more simple,” he said. “None of it makes sense to me. I understand Korean better than English, and it would help me to have things how I understand them.”
In 1993, Santa Clara County became one of the first counties in the country to supply voters with bilingual information, ahead of federal regulations requiring counties to translate voting information when 5 percent or 10,000 of the voting population speak a primary language other than English. Figures are based on the most current U.S. Census Bureau data, and Tagalog joined the county’s ranks in 2002.
Candidate statement filing fees saw steep hikes this year for both Gavilan College and the Gilroy Unified School District, now $1,700 and $3,000 respectively. The increases cover the printing of eight separate informational pamphlets for eight political parties, instead of including all parties in one consolidated pamphlet. That change stems from the decision to go from an open to a modified-closed primary.
Also, the county’s 2002 initiative to provide voting materials in Chinese and Vietnamese was not federally mandated, and the county could not recover the costs. Now that federal regulations require voting translations for all four minority languages, the registrar is proposing to recover those costs.
Registration to receive target language information is ongoing and will take effect in July. New voters will be asked to specify their target language when they register to vote.
Volunteer poll workers, particularly bilingual, who are interested in working November’s election are encouraged to call 299-POLL.
