Why allow voting in Spanish?

Last week, Kane County came to an agreement with the US Department of Justice, to provide bi-lingual elections judges in 49 precincts in the County. This agreement was triggered due to failure to comply (mainly in Carpentersville/Dundee Township) with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as authorized by the establishment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The Fifteen Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

However it is said that “it was not really until the Voting Rights Act in 1965, almost a century later, that the full promise of the fifteenth amendment was actually achieved in all states.” [Source: Wikipedia]

Both the Amendment and the Act (which was most recently reauthorized in 2006) were written particularly to deal with issues emerging from slavery to provide voting rights for African-Americans and other non-white minorities. Today, that debate is being renewed, but this time mainly related to Spanish-speaking immigrants.

In the 60’s it was polling taxes and literacy tests that were being used/proposed in order to keep minorities from voting. Today, it is language.

It is important to consider, however, that such legislation was written to be race or color neutral:

The Act requires bilingual election procedures in various states and counties for voters who speak Spanish, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, and more than a dozen Native American and Alaskan Native languages.

There are a number of objections raised about this, and in terms of Kane County, it has to do with Spanish speaking voters. A recent letter to the editor appearing in the Daily Herald raised several questions:

Why don’t the Spanish speakers hire their own interpreters?

The Voting Rights Act was specifically established to remove such impediments that historically had been used to prevent minorities, including language minorities, from fully participating in the electoral process.

Who is voting in Spanish anyway?

Fellow citizens, typically first-generation immigrants.

If only Americans can vote, then we seem to have a lot of U.S. citizens who don’t speak English. How can they become citizens if they don’t speak English?

Many first-generation citizens understand spoken English better than they speak or read it. As such, they feel more comfortable reading or speaking in Spanish in situations where it is important to understand or make oneself understood. There is already a limited amount of English required to pass the citizenship exam, however, that does not necessarily translate into a level of fluency that would make voting impediment-free.

When are we as a society going to come to grips with the fact that our language and culture are being undermined by non-English speaking immigrants who refuse to assimilate?

When one looks honestly at the issue, it is not a matter of “refusing to assimilate”, and a study I posted a link to a few days ago found that the English language and the “American culture” are in no danger.

The study can be found here. The report’s synopsis states:

Although the life expectancy of Spanish is found to be greater among Mexicans in Southern California compared to other groups, its ultimate demise nonetheless seems assured by the third generation. English has never been seriously threatened as the dominant language of the United States, and it is not threatened today—not even in Southern California. What is endangered instead is the survivability of the non-English languages that immigrants bring with them to the United States.

A relevant portion of the study concluded:

…while 100% of new immigrants speak fluent Spanish, only 35% of their children do, and 3rd and 4th generation (grandchildren/great grandchildren) only 17% and 5% respectively.

Allowing participation in our electoral process is very much part of assimilation into American life. (Although voter apathy and indifference has unfortunately also become a part of American life.)

By removing such impediments to the voting process we are maintaining and re-asserting the very principles of non-discrimination that we pride ourselves on as Americans.

Reference links:

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – US Department of Justice
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Wikipedia
  
• Lingquistic Life Expectancies [Study] – Pop. & Development Review, 9/06
• Fifteen Amendment to the Constitution of the United States –Wikipedia
• GOP Rebellion Stops Voting Rights Act – Washington Post
• House Renews Voting Rights Act Unchanged –CBS News