At a time when many state and local governments can’t afford even necessary government programs, the Obama administration is about to force hundreds of jurisdictions to waste millions of dollars printing ballots in Spanish and other languages for voters who don’t need them. Worse, some of these bilingual ballots may be used fraudulently to encourage people who aren’t citizens to vote illegally in next year’s election.
A perverse element of the Voting Rights Act makes the whole scheme possible. Under the act, jurisdictions whose population includes at least 5 percent of voting-age citizens who have limited English proficiency must provide ballots and other voting materials in other languages. Currently, about 500 jurisdictions are required to do so.
There are exceedingly few persons who are actually eligible to vote who can’t understand English. English proficiency among US-born Hispanics is virtually universal. Even among naturalized citizens, it’s rarely a problem, since showing English proficiency is required to become a US citizen.
So how is it that so many jurisdictions end up having to provide materials in Spanish, Chinese and other languages, when so few eligible voters really need them? Since 1982, Census forms have counted those who are members of so-called language minorities and who say they speak English “well” as having limited proficiency.
In many places, these bilingual materials just sit unused during elections — a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere. A 1997 General Accounting Office report noted that the printing of bilingual material accounted for half the election costs in those jurisdictions covered.
Unscrupulous groups sometimes use these materials to facilitate voting by non-citizens. As I have testified, multiple instances of voter fraud have involved noncitizens voting — by using bilingual ballots — from Hawaii to Georgia.
The least that should be done is stopping the Census Bureau from inflating the number of jurisdictions required to provide bilingual materials based on phony limited-English-proficient numbers.
In a letter this week, Reps. Trent Franks and Trey Gowdy, the chairmen of the House subcommittees charged with overseeing enforcement of bilingual voting rights, urged the common-sense approach of considering anyone who says they speak English “well” on the Census form as English-proficient.
This standard would result in fewer unnecessary bilingual ballots from being printed. But the only way to stop this nonsense is to eliminate the requirement for bilingual voting materials altogether. Furthermore, there is another reason to oppose them: they balkanize our nation.
Our original national motto is E pluribus unum — “out of many, one.” While we come from all over the globe, we are united as Americans. This unity means that we hold certain things in common. We celebrate the same democratic values, cherish our many freedoms and champion equality under the law. Our common bonds must also include an ability to communicate with one another through a common language: English.