I thought that you had to be a citizen to vote. I thought that to become a naturalized citizen you had to be able to read and speak English. A natural born citizen should have learned English as they grew up. Did I miss something?
Activists to rally for ballots in Chinese
Plan to urge Galvin to end opposition
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/09/activists_to_rally_for_ballots_in_chinese/Chinese-American activists plan to rally at the State House today to renew their call for fully bilingual election ballots and to urge Secretary of State William Galvin to drop his objections.
The Chinese Progressive Association is lobbying for ballots, including the names of candidates, to be printed in Chinese to assist Chinese-speakers who read little English. The US Department of Justice also supports the idea and is asking a federal court to require Boston to provide Chinese-language ballots.
"The name is the most crucial thing," said Lydia Lowe , executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, a community group that is organizing the rally. "This would allow many people to vote independently without assistance or interference from anyone else."
A 2005 agreement between Boston and the federal government settled a lawsuit alleging that city poll workers were coercing voters who spoke limited English. Under the settlement, the city agreed to provide Chinese-language ballots. But Galvin and advocates of Chinese-language ballots disagree over whether the candidates' names should be printed in Chinese characters.
Galvin, who oversees state and city elections, said that candidates' names should be printed in English because the Chinese translations are not accurate. Galvin said that he supports translating ballot instructions into Chinese, but that translations of candidates' names will confuse and mislead voters.
"It's going to add a lot of uncertainty to the process," he said.
Meanings of Chinese characters "vary by dialect and have unintended negative meanings," he said. "This is not an exact science, and elections are about precision."
The Chinese translate English names phonetically by matching the sound of each syllable to Chinese characters. But, because each character has many different meanings, the process is inexact and open to interpretation.
Since the agreement with the Justice Department, Boston has provided Chinese-language ballots in 49 of the city's 254 voting precincts with significant Chinese-speaking populations, Galvin said. The federal court ruling will probably affect the fall city election and next year's state presidential primary.
Galvin said he would file a motion this week countering the Justice Department's stance, which he said would leave the city's election results open to legal challenge. "This is an unsettled issue," he said. "Translation is not transliteration," that is, the process of converting words phonetically.
Brian McNiff , a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said Chinese translations often have awkward meanings that "could render candidates' names in a less than favorable light." Lowe said that, while Chinese is not an "alphabetic language," Chinese speakers easily recognize the translations.
"Secretary Galvin has exaggerated the potential for complications," she said. "This has been done successfully across the country for many years."
No confusion was reported when ballots with candidates names in Chinese were used for two Boston City Council races last spring, supporters said.
"It helped a lot of Chinese voters, especially the elderly," said Lisette Le , youth coordinator for the Chinese Progressive Association. "It was much easier for them to pick their candidate."
Alice Leung , the group's community organizer, said that Chinese media regularly translate English names into their language and that Chinese-speakers would have no trouble distinguishing candidates. She said that failing to provide ballots in Chinese disenfranchises residents.
Organizers said they expected about 50 participants at the rally.
Peter Schworm can be reached at
schworm@globe.com.
