November 08, 2006
AALDEF's exit polling effortsPolitics
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, with the aid of organizations like SAALT, were once again (they did this in 2004 as well) taking exit polling data on how Asian American voters voted in the mostly Blue States of DC, MD, VA, PA, MA, MI, NY and NJ. They haven’t realeased the data yet (although I am working on obtaining a sneak peek) but here are some of the incidents they logged at polling sites yesterday. Some of you told us about your own problems. You weren’t alone. From their press release:
More than 625 volunteers from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and a coalition of Asian American advocacy groups monitored today’s elections in eight states—New York,New Jersey,Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania,Virginia,and Maryland—and Washington, D.C. Amid high Asian American voter turnout, AALDEF volunteers documented and phoned in reports that polling places were understaffed, poll workers were hostile to Asian American voters and improperly asked for IDs, and translated voter assistance materials were not readily available to Asian-language voters.
Preliminary list of Asian American voting problems in 2006 Midterm Elections:
New York
Under Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions with large Asian-language populations must provide Chinese- and Korean-language voting assistance, including interpreters at polling places and translated ballots, signs and materials. In New York City, three boroughs are required to provide Chinese-language assistance—Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn—and Queens is also required to provide Korean-language assistance.
* At P.S. 20 in Flushing, Queens , the poll site coordinator told an AALDEF monitor that “A lot of Chinese and Koreans don’t speak English. This is America —they should learn English.” Translated materials, including the voters’ bill of rights and voting machine instructions, were not posted at the beginning of the day.
* At P.S. 126 in Chinatown , a poll worker walked down a line of Asian American voters and improperly asked them to show identification in order to make the line would move faster. Another poll worker asked voters to show their voter registration cards, also not a voting prerequisite.
* At P.S. 12 in Woodside, Queens, four Asian American voters were asked to show identification even though they were not first-time voters. (One voter was especially upset because said she had registered to vote more than 20 years ago, and had been asked for identification in a previous election as well.) In the early evening, two Indian women voters were turned away from the polls and not offered affidavit (provisional) ballots.
* At the busy Lands End II poll site in Chinatown , only English-language voting machine instructions were posted.
* At Newtown H.S., in Elmhurst , Queens, a Korean American couple was told that their names were not in the voter rolls, even though they both had voted there before. They were not offered affidavit ballots, and left without voting.
* At P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights , Queens, a Bengali voter who re-registered in this district in 2000 was told that her name was not on the voter rolls and was turned away.
* At Surrogate’s Court in Lower Manhattan , only one Chinese interpreter was at the polling place (two were assigned), and the interpreter had to cross off the Spanish nametag and write in “Chinese.” Most signs were not available in Chinese.
* At P.S. 199 in Long Island City , Queens , neither of the two ED/AD tables had Chinese or Korean voting machine instructions or sample ballot posters.
Boston
In Boston , MA , a 2005 court settlement requires the City of Boston to provide Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish language assistance to voters under the Voting Rights Act.
Preliminary list of documented violations in the 2006 Boston elections:
* At VietAID in Dorchester , there was no official interpreter present. In this emergency, a police officer and a staff member of VietAID served as Vietnamese translators. There were no provisional ballot materials in Vietnamese, nor was the required notice on “Election Law Violations” in English or any other language.
* At the National Armory and Richard Murphy School in Boston , translated provisional ballot materials and “Election Law Violations” signs were also missing.
* At the ETC Building , a very busy poll site in South End, a City-assigned Chinese interpreter asked only Chinese-speaking voters for their identification, even though they were not required to provide it. This resulted in only Chinese Americans being asked to show identification. An elderly Chinese American voter could not read her ballot, but poll workers failed to offer her a magnifying aid, and she could not fill our her ballot properly. Mandated “Interpreter Available” signs in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish were missing, along with multilingual signs, including ballot-marking instructions, “Instructions to Voters” signs, and the “Election Law Violations.” Vietnamese and Spanish provisional ballots, information sheets, specimen ballots, and affirmations of residence for inactive voter forms were also missing.
* At the Copley Library in Back Bay, none of the posted signs were in Chinese except for the “Vote Here” sign. Chinese ballots and voting materials were unopened in the back of the room behind the voting booths, instead of at the check-in table. The multilingual sign alerting voters that Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish ballots are available was not posted, nor the Chinese or Vietnamese “Interpreter Available” signs.
* At the Patrick O’Hearn School in Dorchester, the multilingual sign alerting voters that Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish ballots are available was not posted, nor the multilingual specimen ballot. The multilingual “Need Translation Assistance” sign was also missing.
* At the Woodbourne Apartments site (Ward 19, Precinct 17), the provisional ballot materials in Chinese and Spanish were left unopened by the time AALDEF’s monitor left, at 8:45 a.m.
* At the Savin Hill Apartments, St. William School, and Edward Everett School poll sites in Dorchester , all Vietnamese provisional ballot materials were left behind the voting machines. At the St. William School site, none of the “Interpreter Available” signs in English, Vietnamese or Spanish were present, and the Savin Hill and Edward Everett sites, none of the Chinese and Spanish “Interpreter Available” signs were present.
* For all ballots in the City of Boston , the names of candidates were not transliterated into Chinese or Vietnamese. AALDEF alerted elections officials to the incomplete translation of the ballots during the primary elections and has taken the position that the federal court order should be interpreted to include transliterated names.
“For many Asian American voters, the transliterated name of the candidates is the most important piece of information on the ballot,” said AALDEF Staff Attorney Glenn Magpantay. In reviewing New York City ‘s language assistance program, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken the position that bilingual ballots must include the transliterated names of candidates in order to comply fully with the Voting Rights Act.
New Jersey
At several polling places in Jersey City , Palisades Park and Fort Lee , Asian American voters were asked for ID, even though they said they had voted in previous elections.
* At Grace Church in Jersey City , a South Asian voter was not able to vote since her name was not on the voter rolls. A poll worker told her to go back home and bring back a notification letter. The voter showed this letter and then was able to cast her vote. A Filipino voter, who said he has voted several times in the past twenty years, was unable to vote because his name was not in the voter rolls.
* Also at Grace Church in Jersey City , a poll worker asked an Asian American voter who had voted at that site last year to show ID in order to vote. The voter rolls listed his name misspelled, but even when the signatures on his ID matched the one in the rolls, the poll worker repeatedly questioned him, “Are you sure it’s you?”
* At Linbergh School in Palisades Park , a large number of Korean American voters were asked to show ID throughout the day.
Virginia
On Saturday, in Arlington , VA , a Filipino American voter who submitted his absentee ballot in-person. When he glanced at other written material, an elections office worker asked him without any reason: “Do you know how to read?” The voter found the question highly offensive.
* In Woodbridge , VA , a limited English proficient Korean American voter was not able to operate the electronic voting machine, and required language assistance in Korean. A person eventually guided her.
Pennsylvania
* At Firehouse in Philadelphia ‘s Chinatown, poll workers told two Asian American voters they could not vote at that poll site and directed them to North Philadelphia without providing the voters with addresses or directions. One of those voters, a Mandarin speaker, was able to find her correct poll site in North Philadelphia, but poll workers there also denied her the right to cast a ballot, did not explain to her why, and did not offer her the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot and led her out of the poll site. A bystander, seeing the voter cry, assisted in getting her a provisional ballot.
Michigan
* At William Ford Elementary in Dearborn , MI , poll workers asked an Arab American voter to show identification, even though he had voted in that district in a prior election. The voter was only allowed to cast his vote after he showed his ID.
* Also at William Ford Elementary, two limited English proficient voters asked poll workers for assistance because they spoke primarily Arabic. The poll workers, unable to understand that that the two voters were asking for instructions on how to vote, told them, “We’re not allowed to help you.” The voters were only able to vote when another voter offered to assist them in Arabic.
Like I said, stay tuned. I’ll hit you with the exit polling numbers as soon as I get them.
abhi on November 8, 2006 01:56 PM in Politics · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
I'm not sure any of these are necessarily indicative of systematic malice. As for the ID thing, they check ID at my polling place regardless of ethnicity...basically to get your name and compare it to the registered voters list.
On a related note, is it really too much to ask that one be able to speak English before being allowed to vote? Don't get me wrong, if the law permits it, it permits it, and anyone who legally qualifies to vote should do so, and history tells us the abuses that can be made with literacy tests. But in today's age of (hopefully) universal education, one hopes a voter would be literate enough in English to figure out a ballot.
Speedy
Yes Speedy, and the government should also fund an initiative to make them lose their native accents and learn to say 'PAINT' the way they are supposed to be saying. Any more 'features' that you would like to see on INS naturalization requirements?
We can outsource this and build a nice IT upplikashun!
Comment # 2 was by me! Sorry for the confusion.
Everyone in my precinct was asked for IDs mostly because it sped up the process and they matched the name on the licence to the name on the voter roll. Considering every single person that was running those polls in my neighborhood was over 65 I thought that was an attempt to be efficient. Yeah people are rude I mean a lot of them are just rude cause they are old and crabby and irritable and have no patience, they were cribbing at each other.
Every single time I have said my name I have to say G A W L E 95 times and the person keeps going Kaval Jagel Cleaw I mean it's really irritating but I don't expect a 85 year old to really get it right away and so many times they'll just scroll past my name and I have to point it out to them. I can imagine complicated names.
Not making excuses for them but the average volunteer at the poll site is a irritated tired senior citizen more interested in the socializing and could give a shit if someone next to them got run over by a mac truck. The city could attempt to "retrain them" to be more sensitive but I don't now if you can get more out of them.
Dude, both the South Carolina governor and Chelsea Clinton were turned away from the polls.
In the defense of poll workers (in response to JOAT's rant):
I went to my polling place, was not on the rolls (have been through 2 cycles at this spot already), was sent to a desi kid (natch) with the hand held machine to look it up, name wasn't listed, looked up ssn, found the new place, went to the new place down the street, turned out that my name was spelled wrong, made an affirmation and voted. All through this process nobody was rude,disrespectful, condescending or anything.
The senior citizens who manned the places were apologetic, and a good time was had by all (my 2.5 year old came along for the ride).
Meanwhile, there is chaos in a South Asian country whose people want to oust its leader.
Link here.
No threadjacking please.
Sorry. You can delete those comments. I should've put them in the tip section. You can delete this comment as well.
It still really doesn't explain the rude behavior experienced by so many others. You had a good experience. Did everyone else?
Prasad,
The hell, dude? I don't care if anyone can speak English with a perfect Midwestern twang. Seriously, though, being English literate enough to read the name of a candidate and fill in a dot (or make a mark, or however they do it in your state) is too much too ask?
Speedy
Immigrants should make enough effort to learn the local language. I understand it is not possible in all cases but the effort should be there. Otherwise the silly things like this will be made into law.
This does not exist.
today's age of (hopefully) universal education, one hopes a voter would be literate enough in English to figure out a ballot.
Speedy Behan,
But I only know little, little English.
I only know bhojpuri. Am I useless?
My blonde girlfriend, Tammy is helping me. Jai Mata Thi. Pranam.
I sense this thread slipping like the clutch on an '84 VW Jetta.
hahahahah!
After the bot posted, I think I can rest my case.
Even Shane and I had trouble voting this time around... and we're hardly Asian, though we may look vaguely Democrat. The poll worker could not figure out my name when I told it to her, and when she read from my drivers license (left the voter registration card at home), she started looking through the rolls for ANDREA, not my last name. She told me, "I don't see you here." I had to flip two pages back in the book MYSELF and show her where my name was. When it was Shane's turn, she started looking for Edward (his middle name) instead of our last name... again.
From my experience, I don't think that the majority of these cases above is any kind of evil racist disenfranchisement ... it's ethnocentrism at worst (and how to explain ethnocentrism to a seventy-year-old grandma working the polls??).
I think that most of the problems are the result of poorly trained, volunteer poll workers - if mine could not understand a not-so-common American name and confuse a middle name with a last name on a drivers license, I can certainly imagine someone going in with an Asian name that the poll worker has probably never heard in their seventy-two years, giving their name as "last first" (typical in China,) having the poll worker not find it due to misspelling, misunderstanding or wrong name order, and having them tell you that you aren't in the rolls without trying another option. I mean, she told ME I wasn't there, and I had to point it out myself.
It's just a messy system :( And hell yea, I'm going to find out how to work the polls at my precinct next election.
I would concur. Training and giving personnel the right resources can alleviate most of the problems that we see. Takes time and money, though.
Kush,
Parody aside, anyone who can write English that well can probably read and mark a ballot. Try answering the question.
Speedy
While I sympathize with those who were genuinely wronged, some of these incidents were just ignorance on the part of the poll worker and/or worker, and at least some of them had a "happy ending" (which is the important thing when all is said and done).
When I tried to vote in suburban Columbia, SC, I could have been fuming and raging at the middle-aged African-American woman who was the poll worker, for asking if I had a green card after she couldn't find my name on the voter roll (I had moved and forgotten to inform the State beyond just changing my driver's license). I laughed it off instead (I was in the end more upset that she didn't seem to know that a green card holder CAN'T VOTE) and just waited patiently as another middle-aged African-American woman poll worker called the County election office and confirmed that I was registered at another precinct - I just had to go to the County office, get an address change, and vote at the booths provided there. The lady there was even nice enough to change my wife's registration without her having to be dragged downtown (not easy with a 9-month old baby).
I also agree that immigrants need to make a good-faith effort to learn English, which should be a condition of naturalization anyways. I understand if an elderly Puerto Rican person with limited or no English is trying to vote on the mainland (in which case I wouldn't cry bloody murder over a Spanish ballot), or perhaps an illiterate Texan of Mexican descent who's family been on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande for generations because of Texas' independence in 1836. But for other cases, I think English should be encouraged to the extent practical so that we don't have nativist backlashes overreaching (not that it justified nativism, of course).
The government doesn't really need to make an effort to "solve" the "problem" of non-English-literate voters. The only required action is a negative- polling station ballots to be printed only in English, with no on-site translation services available.
There might a good reason to print some ballots in other languages-- maybe for older immigrants or just as a matter of convenience, but those would only be available ahead of time, like an absentee ballot.
Speedy
Speedy
Very erudite comments. The US is all about inclusiveness. Go peddle your negative incentives elsewhere. I would try Neo Nazi Russia for instance.
The state has to ensure that people are helped so that they can exercise their constitutional right to vote. The US is a polyglot society and will be more so in the future. If you can't deal with it, I suggest you seek treatment or move to a skinhead neighborhood in Moscow.
BTW Kush, I saw your blog for the first time. Beautiful pictures dude.
Desi Dawg:
My erudition is no match for your own...the Nazis are a real popular bunch in Russia.
A polyglot society I can deal with. A polylingual political system, not so much.
Speedy