From the desk of...
Congressman Steve King
-
Iowa, Fifth District
Foreign Language Ballots Divide Country; Washington Should Use
Opportunity to Demolish Obstacles for New Immigrants
June 30, 2006
We all learned early in school that Members of Congress debate and amend
policy to address the concerns of the American people. An idea rarely
passes through both houses of Congress, with 535 people representing
different areas of the country, exactly the way it started.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives was set to renew the
temporary parts of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) for another twenty-five
years, or until the year 2032. The permanent VRA was passed in 1965 to
ensure blacks were not denied their right to vote. A natural successor
to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it outlawed tests and taxes to determine
who could vote and helped the right to vote be realized in practice for
black Americans. Today, this group has more representation than ever
with 41 Members of Congress and everybody has the benefit of full
participation in the political process. However, the renewal of
temporary provisions today has extra language requiring voting materials
to be printed in foreign languages even though immigrants must prove
they know English in order to become citizens.
Unfortunately, the vote to renew the VRA this year was supposed to be
under a rule that allowed no Member of Congress to offer an amendment to
make it better. I believe the Voting Rights Act renewal is such an
important law, affecting the very integrity of our Constitutional
Republic, that renewing it without the option for amendments would cheat
Americans for years to come.
This federal mandate forces localities to provide foreign language
voting materials and ballots in any area where more than a certain
number of people speak a foreign language. This mandate in Sections 203
and 4(f)(4) was not part of the original VRA, but was added later and
only intended to be temporary. These provisions require ballots to be
printed in any language, encouraging linguistic division and cracking
the Melting Pot that makes us the most successful multi-ethnic nation on
earth. Further, they insult generations of immigrants who, with great
effort, learned English in order to become naturalized citizens.
Extending the foreign language voting mandate for twenty-five more years
means a single-committed Member of Congress could serve Congress for a
half century and be denied the opportunity to vote to end federal
foreign language ballot mandates on behalf of their tax-paying
constituents. It is fundamentally an insult to representative government
to be denied the right to vote on amendments to the Voting Rights Act.
Seventy-eight other Members of Congress joined me and demanded that we
be able to offer amendments to fix the foreign language voting mandate.
Even though a large group of Members of Congress wanted to offer
amendments to solve the problem, we were not allowed to do so. The
backlash against prohibiting our amendments ultimately pushed House
leadership to ground the bill temporarily. This move to allow Members
more time to respond to their constituents is a setback only for those
who want to institutionalize multilingual voting for the next
twenty-five years. It is irresponsible to renew these provisions for
another generation.
If we want to demolish modern-day obstacles and bring all backgrounds
into our voting process to communicate with each other, we must unify
the country instead of driving a wedge between cultures.
We are a nation that assimilates new immigrants from all parts of the
world. The American dream means you are the driver of your own destiny,
and you can work hard to be successful. For generations immigrants have
understood that learning English is essential to fully realizing the
American dream. However, foreign language ballots divide our country,
increase the risk of voter error and fraud and burden taxpayers
currently mandated by the federal government.
Foreign language ballots increase the risk of election errors and fraud
and undermine the integrity of our voting process. For example, in 2000,
six voting sites in Flushing, New York printed ballots in Chinese with
the names of Republicans identified as Democrats and Democrats as
Republicans. Several thousand voters cast their votes using these
erroneous ballots.
Foreign language ballots cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and in many
cases, localities are required to purchase additional election materials
that are never used. Almost 300 counties in thirty states are required
to have such materials available, regardless of whether they are
requested or used. I believe a federal mandate is unnecessary. If cities
and localities wish to provide foreign language ballots, they can do so
without the federal government strong-arming them to do so.
Finally, voters who need language assistance are already permitted,
under current law, to bring an interpreter of their choice into the
voting booth. Every citizen deserves to cast an informed ballot, and
this is the right approach for voters who have difficulty understanding
voting materials in English.
America seems poised to legalize tens of millions of immigrants. If
their first act of political participation with our democratic
republican process is to cast a ballot in a foreign language, they will
be discouraged from engaging in the difficult process of assimilation,
the most essential component of our national success.
