U.S. English Chairman Calls Boston Bilingual Ballot Bill Redundant, Unnecessary

U.S. English Chairman Calls Boston Bilingual Ballot Bill Redundant, Unnecessary

Washington, DC—U.S. English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica today released the following statement in response to the signing of a bill in Massachusetts requiring additional bilingual ballot translations in Boston.

House Bill 4089, reported from the House Ways and Means Committee, was on Tuesday signed into law by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The bill requires voting ballots to be printed in Chinese and Vietnamese in districts where more than five percent of residents speaking those languages reside.

“This bill is redundant and unnecessary. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act exists for the same purpose, to ensure that foreign language speakers can still participate in the democratic process,” Chairman Mujica said. “Rather than continuing to cater to the needs of speakers of the 325 individual languages spoken in the United States, the local, state and federal governments should instead emphasize teaching English to this population. United States naturalization requirements currently include the ability to read, write and speak English, so bilingual ballots should already be unnecessary. Instead of providing these costly ballot translations, government funds could be put to far better use creating English language learning opportunities for the non-English speaking residents of this country.”

###