BILL NUMBER: S2098

SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the election law, in relation to providing translators
at certain polling place locations

 
PURPOSE:

This bill expands language translation services to individual election
districts, as needed, to assure that non-English speaking voters are
able to understand the vote on the ballot provided, It responds to a
direct need to identify those individual election districts with a
disproportionate number of non-English speakers, and then to assure that
a translator is provided at that election district.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one establishes that Section 4-100 of the election law is
amended by adding a new subdivision 6 requiring that the State Board of
              

Elections is responsible for identifying the number of voting age citi-
zens within an Election District who speak a language other than English
at home. If at least 15% of the voting age citizens speak a language
other than English at home, each County Board of Elections must provide
at least one poll worker that speaks that language at the polling places
throughout that Election District. Upon voter request, the poll worker
will provide translation services to the voter requesting translation in
the language for which he/she was assigned to the polling location.

Section two establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

When voting age citizens are exercising their right to vote, a language
barrier should not impede their ability to vote within elections. In
providing a translator at polling locations in which the Board of
Elections anticipates a specified level of demand for translation
services, the Board of Elections will ensure these citizens are able to
cast their votes free from anxiety, confusion or intimidation. In one
instance in Yonkers, in an election district in which the vast majority
of the voters spoke Korean at home, voters were unable to freely and
fully exercise their rights to vote. This bill will ensure voters in
such instances will have access to a neutral translator who is a poll
worker.

This bill will require that the State Board of Elections identify high
non-English speaking election districts, and that each County Board of
Elections provide a translator within the polling locations of those
election districts that have a high population (15% or more) of voting
age citizens who speak a language other than English at home. This
expands the current requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act, as
amended in 1975, Section 203. That Act requires political subdivisions
(mostly counties) to provide minority language assistance for those
citizens in localities where there are more than 10,000 or over 5
percent of the total voting age citizens who are members of a single
minority language group, have depressed literacy rates and do not speak
English very well. This bill expands these protections by requiring
language assistance in individual election districts where there is
substantial need for translation services based on the percentage of
non-English speaking voters.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017: A9642 (Mayer) - Referred to election law
2018: S8588 (Mayer) - Referred to election law

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.