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Don't Read This. You'll Get PI$$ED!!!!
tideman
Member Posts: 1,099 ✭✭✭✭
This is in Houston, Texas. I'm Giving Up!!!!!!!! Tideman
Oct. 31, 2003, 9:17AM
Asians irked ballots aren't in Vietnamese
Leaders say county flouts federal rules
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Harris County's failure to provide electronic ballots in Vietnamese is rankling local Asian leaders who complain that the county has failed to comply with the U.S. Justice Department's order last year.
Community leaders learned last month that Vietnamese would not be found on the county's electronic eSlate ballots in Tuesday's election.
"We're very disappointed the Vietnamese language is not on eSlate machines," said Rogene Gee Calvert, a member of county and city Vietnamese advisory panels.
The $25 million eSlate machines, which replaced the county's aging punch-card system, were first used last November and provided Spanish and English ballots. The county has been unable to get federal certification to add Vietnamese.
"If (the county) really wanted to do it, it's the kind of thing where you wouldn't have to push to do it," Calvert said.
Still, a county official insists the county is abiding by the law by providing Vietnamese translators, sample ballots in Vietnamese and informational voting materials at targeted polling places.
However, Philoan Tran, a board member for the Asian American Legal Center of Texas, said her group has encountered irregularities at polling sites where Vietnamese sample ballots were unavailable and interpreters were not proficient in the language.
"I don't think the county can solve the problems before Tuesday's election," Tran said.
In July 2002, the Justice Department ordered the county to provide ballots and election materials in Vietnamese. The growing Vietnamese population and requirements in the federal Voting Rights Act triggered the order. Harris is the only county in Texas with a Vietnamese population large enough to trigger the requirement.
According to the 2000 census, more than 55,000 people in the county identify themselves as Vietnamese, and the Justice Department says at least 10,000 are old enough to vote but not proficient in English. Three California counties also were included in the order: Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara.
Certification for the language upgrade to eSlate machines, which comes at no additional cost to the county, has been in the works since January, said David Beirne, public affairs director for County Clerk Beverly Kaufman.
Documents submitted to a federal testing agency in January did not meet revised standards. The procedural changes "had not been clearly communicated," said Bill Stotesbery, vice president for the eSlate vendor, Hart InterCivic. The agency is considering revised forms. Once federal approval is granted, the state's election division must also scrutinize the upgrade.
The Voting Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate in voting based on language. The Justice Department enforces that protection by lawsuits, sending observers to monitor elections and working with local jurisdictions to improve their minority-language election procedures.
Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, said he was aware of the county's certification efforts. He explained that the law allows the county to provide an alternative, like translators, if unable to provide a required language. But he declined to say whether the county would be investigated for its voting procedures.
Beirne said he is confident that the Justice Department will not take issue with the election measures.
"We've always been in constant contact with the Department of Justice, and we briefed them on what we're experiencing at the local level," Beirne said.
Beirne and Stotesbery offered assurances that the certification process will be secured in time for the March 2004 primary election.
Calvert, who is also Councilman Gordon Quan's chief of staff, has her doubts, saying the same promise was made before Tuesday's election.
More Vietnamese voters, she said, would likely turn out if they knew they could easily vote in their language.
"They need to exercise their right to vote and not feel intimidated," Calvert said.
"Don't shoot to stop 'em, Shoot to Destroy 'em!"
Oct. 31, 2003, 9:17AM
Asians irked ballots aren't in Vietnamese
Leaders say county flouts federal rules
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Harris County's failure to provide electronic ballots in Vietnamese is rankling local Asian leaders who complain that the county has failed to comply with the U.S. Justice Department's order last year.
Community leaders learned last month that Vietnamese would not be found on the county's electronic eSlate ballots in Tuesday's election.
"We're very disappointed the Vietnamese language is not on eSlate machines," said Rogene Gee Calvert, a member of county and city Vietnamese advisory panels.
The $25 million eSlate machines, which replaced the county's aging punch-card system, were first used last November and provided Spanish and English ballots. The county has been unable to get federal certification to add Vietnamese.
"If (the county) really wanted to do it, it's the kind of thing where you wouldn't have to push to do it," Calvert said.
Still, a county official insists the county is abiding by the law by providing Vietnamese translators, sample ballots in Vietnamese and informational voting materials at targeted polling places.
However, Philoan Tran, a board member for the Asian American Legal Center of Texas, said her group has encountered irregularities at polling sites where Vietnamese sample ballots were unavailable and interpreters were not proficient in the language.
"I don't think the county can solve the problems before Tuesday's election," Tran said.
In July 2002, the Justice Department ordered the county to provide ballots and election materials in Vietnamese. The growing Vietnamese population and requirements in the federal Voting Rights Act triggered the order. Harris is the only county in Texas with a Vietnamese population large enough to trigger the requirement.
According to the 2000 census, more than 55,000 people in the county identify themselves as Vietnamese, and the Justice Department says at least 10,000 are old enough to vote but not proficient in English. Three California counties also were included in the order: Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara.
Certification for the language upgrade to eSlate machines, which comes at no additional cost to the county, has been in the works since January, said David Beirne, public affairs director for County Clerk Beverly Kaufman.
Documents submitted to a federal testing agency in January did not meet revised standards. The procedural changes "had not been clearly communicated," said Bill Stotesbery, vice president for the eSlate vendor, Hart InterCivic. The agency is considering revised forms. Once federal approval is granted, the state's election division must also scrutinize the upgrade.
The Voting Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate in voting based on language. The Justice Department enforces that protection by lawsuits, sending observers to monitor elections and working with local jurisdictions to improve their minority-language election procedures.
Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, said he was aware of the county's certification efforts. He explained that the law allows the county to provide an alternative, like translators, if unable to provide a required language. But he declined to say whether the county would be investigated for its voting procedures.
Beirne said he is confident that the Justice Department will not take issue with the election measures.
"We've always been in constant contact with the Department of Justice, and we briefed them on what we're experiencing at the local level," Beirne said.
Beirne and Stotesbery offered assurances that the certification process will be secured in time for the March 2004 primary election.
Calvert, who is also Councilman Gordon Quan's chief of staff, has her doubts, saying the same promise was made before Tuesday's election.
More Vietnamese voters, she said, would likely turn out if they knew they could easily vote in their language.
"They need to exercise their right to vote and not feel intimidated," Calvert said.
"Don't shoot to stop 'em, Shoot to Destroy 'em!"
Comments
***KATN!***
Welcome to America....now speak ENGLISH!
Mudge the disgusted
I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!
I've seen them in those politically incorrect mailers that Tapco or FAC or Cheaper Than Dirt sends me every month; when I figure out which it was, I'll let everyone know!
Oh yeah, so what if 10,000 VC can't vote in Texas. They couldn't vote before they got here; why burden them with the responsibilities of a Democracy?
If you know it all; you must have been listening.WEAR EAR PROTECTION!
"If I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know"- Kansas
[V][:(!]
I'M OUT OF ESTROGEN
And I HAVE A GUN
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
God Bless America and...
NEVER Forget WACO
NEVER, EVER Forget 911
The saying "If you come to my country speak my language" won't work anymore because pretty soon the language will be spanish. [:(!][:(!]
________________
http://NationalGunBuyingDay.org
www.awbansunset.com
www.ammoday.com
Big Daddy my heros have always been cowboys,they still are it seems
Fight Crime, Shoot First
81st FA BN WWII...Thanks Dad
U!S!A! ALL THE WAY!!
I can't go anywhere around here, grocery shopping, to Home Depot, etc., without hearing most of the people around speaking some sort of non American jiberish. It drives me nuts. When I'm in one of my moods, I'll say to them, Welcome to America, now speak English. That only drives my wife nuts.
Try to buy a light bulb. You gotta turn the box around and around to find the English writing that tells you what is inside.
I hate the instructions that come with anything today. The book is 2 inches thick because its written in a couple of dozen of languages.
Darn it, If you can't speak, read and write our language, you should not be allowed to vote. period.
All of our government documents should be in English/American, only. Maybe the documents that are required to learn about becoming a citizen could be in other languages, but everyone should be required to learn English and take a proficiency test before becoming a citizen and then the papers to actually become a citizen should be in English only, that also goes for all of the important docs like;
driver licenses
taxes
Ballots
voting machines
etc.
It must be crazy for the LEO's in the towns that have primarily non-English speaking people. Now they even give insentives for LEO's that speak multi languages.
On the other hand, when I travel to other countries, it is a Godsend to see airport signs and such in English. When you go to a foriegn country and you gotta fill out their customs paperwork, they usually have it in English also.
So I guess I understand why a lot of stuff is multi languages, companies print the instructions in multi languages because they sell their stuff to many different people, however, our official government documents should be in English/American only.
I really would also like to see a law that says that if you are a citizen, you must speak English in public, except to help a non-citizen that does not speak English.
I'm pretty sure you can thank the dems for this problem.
Then come back to the USA, learn english and shut the *&%# Up!
That's all.[}:)]
the difference between the almost right word and the right word is like the difference between a lightning bug and a lightning bolt