Bilingual Chaos

National Review Online ^ | December 19th, 2000 | Jim Boulet Jr.

[Sabertooth]

This article is a little old, but points out some of the many problems with bilingual ballots...

[stalin]

There should be a requirment that you speak English in order to vote. There should be a lot of other requirements too.

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[AdamSelene235]

Que?

[AAABEST]

What the article left out is that on the Chinese ballot it reads "all your ballot are belong to us".

[Drew68]

Haitian activist (and a Gore delegate to the Democratic convention earlier this year) Margaret Armand explained to the Sun-Sentinel why this was a problem: "[Haitians without] a command of the English language vote only by number."

Lovely. My vote gets nullified by an 'effing illiterate Haitian who can only read numbers.

[Drew68]

This article is a little old, but points out some of the many problems with bilingual ballots...

The article may be old but the subject matter is hardly dated. Thanks for digging this up.

See also: County on way to officially bilingual (posted today)

[PsyOp]

Well, there's supposed to be a requirement that you must speak English to be a citizen. And only citizens are supposed to vote. But, in California, they register you to vote when you get your dirver's licence, but don't make you prove your legal status. Motor Voter Fraud is rampant here.

Before long, I expect they will drop the citizenship requirement entirely.

[Torie]

Bilingual ballots would not seem to make much sense except for bond and issue propositions. Proper names are proper names. Still, this is one of those non issues that folks get in a wad about. Not me.

[Kaslin]

Well, there's supposed to be a requirement that you must speak English to be a citizen.

If I remember correct the requirement is that you do have to be able to speak read and write English, but you do not have to be fluent

[PsyOp]

"speak read and write English, but you do not have to be fluent"

I believe you are correct. I think the only requirement today is a promise to vote Democrat. Here in California, there's adozen lib organizaions waiting to sign them up after each swearing in ceremony, along with people to tell them where to apply for any bennies they may not already have.

[Kaslin]

Did you see the thread about the widow of a WTC hero who the INS is threatening to deport. Both she and her huband were British Citizen and both of their children are American Citizen. She said that her husband applied for a Green card in 94 but had to abonden (sp) it because he changed jobs

[PsyOp]

I did see the thread. As one poster there commented - they weren't brown enough (or something to that effect). Despicable.

[Lizavetta]

There should be a requirment that you speak English in order to vote. There should be a lot of other requirements too.

Like requiring ID? There is no such requirement here in Taxifornia.

[Jhoffa_]

There... there is the all inclusive multilingual ballot.

This is only the local elections, Congressional and Presidental Ballots will be delivered to your home via forklift.

[Kaslin]

I am glad you saw the thread, as I just found it again

[junta]

Then it is quite simple we print the ballots in English because if you do not get in a wad over this there is no reason for these people to get in a wad either.

[mrustow]

Thanks for the growl, Sabe. As I recall, Guinier also used the article to plead for her favorite cause, proportional voting (while discreetly leaving out her call for blacks to have a veto right over all political decisions).

The Haitian activist is a transparent liar. In Haitian districts in Miami, violations of election law were rampant, with activists inside polling places pushing pieces of paper into the hands of voters in line by voting machines, which told them whom to vote for. I don't doubt for a moment that this woman's hands are dirty. Who are the "they" she talks about?

The Chinese activist from New York needs to fess up about why the translations are so bad. I used to work in Chinatown, for a summer youth education program. My boss was a young woman who had never finished her bachelor's degree, and had no teaching experience. And she was as nasty as she was incompetent. She had an uncle or something with a connection to the organization. And so it is, with the translator jobs. Competence plays no role in who gets hired; it's all straight-up, political patronage (see also, translators, Haitian).

[Victoria Delsoul]

Chinese, Haitian and Serbo-Croatian activists alike should feel free to translate, distribute, and pay for their own voting materials as they see fit.

Hmmm, and all this time I thought the problem was Spanish.

[Sabertooth]

Hmmm, and all this time I thought the problem was Spanish.

The problem is Babel, and Spanish ballots are the biggest part of it.