Voting Accessibility and Language: Everything You Need to Know
With more than 25.1 million Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals ready to vote in elections, a key part of your election planning must be considering voting accessibility. While voting accessibility includes a wide variety of topics, the most impactful for LEP individuals is language access. Your LEP constituents need voting materials they can connect with and understand without issue.
The federal government supports the needs of LEP individuals by setting regulations for translation and interpretation to support voting accessibility. These regulations apply all the way from voter registration to election day to ensure LEP individuals can engage with the democratic process.
Voting Accessibility and Language Groups
Your county needs to translate documents for specific groups based on their percentage of the population in your area, or literacy rate. Your county needs to translate documents for minority language groups that:
- Ballots, including official, sample, and absentee ballots
- Voting instructions
- Online voting information
- Voter registration information
- Polling place notices
- Voter information pamphlets
An additional requirement is that your polling place must staff bilingual workers for the affected minority language groups.
Voting Accessibility and Alternative Formatting
ADA populations have their own voting accessibility requirements. All counties must meet the ADA voting accessibility requirements to ensure ADA individuals have access to participate in the democratic process.
To maintain compliance with ADA voting rights, your county needs to provide braille-formatted materials at the polls, including ballots and voter instructions. Audio devices that provide meaningful access to the information being read must also be available at your polling place. Finally, for ADA-covered individuals, you must be willing to provide in-person support to those that are voting, including reading ballots and voter instructions aloud.
If you’re worried about the status of your county’s translations, or just want to make sure you’ve translated all of the necessary documents to remain compliant, give us a call at (530) 750-2040 or request a free quote. We can help you get and stay compliant with all federal voting accessibility requirements.