Allison Hooks
Professor Raymond Smith
21 April 2015
Asian Americans and Language as a Barrier to Voting
Key words: voting rights, language policy, voting accessibility, language barriers, language
minorities, Asian Americans
Description: This issue brief discusses how language barriers impact voting accessibility for
Asian Americans and the legislation that protects the voting rights of language minorities.
Key Points:
 35% of Asian Americans have limited English proficiency which impacts their ability
to vote.
 Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act has helped over 700,000 Asian Americans
exercise their right to vote.
 The National Voter Registration Act helps Asian Americans with limited English
proficiency register to vote.
 Despite legal requirements, Asian Americans with limited English proficiency still
face barriers to voting participation.
Issue Brief:
Asian Americans are more likely than other ethnoracial groups to speak a language
other than English at home, with 77% of the Asian alone population and 70% of the Asian
alone or in combination with other races population speaking a non-English language at
home. More than one-third of Asian Americans are considered to have limited English
proficiency, which potentially affects their ability to vote (AAJC). Several pieces of
legislation help to enable Asian Americans to exercise their voting rights including the
Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act.
Despite these legal protections, Asian Americans still face voting difficulties often related to
language barriers.
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In 1965 Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to protect Americans’ right to vote. In
1975 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to include Section 203, the Language
Assistance Provisions. Section 203 was constructed to ensure the voting rights of language
minorities and requires that certain jurisdictions provide voter registration materials,
assistance, forms, ballots, signage, and all other voting materials in English and the
languages(s) of language minorities. A jurisdiction is covered by Section 203 if 10,000 or 5%
of the voting-age citizens are of limited English proficiency and have a higher than the
national average illiteracy rate. This is determined by the U.S. Census and currently applies
to counties/cities in 11 states for several different Asian language groups including Chinese,
Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Hindi, and Thai. Section 203 has
helped over 700,000 Asian Americans exercise their right to vote (Asian American Access to
Democracy in the 2012 Elections, AALDEF Report). It is also important when, according to
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2012 AALDEF exit polls, 22% of respondents preferred to vote with the help of an
interpreter and/or translated materials. The Voting Rights Act also includes Section 208,
which was added in 1982, and allows voters to be assisted at the ballot by a person of their
choice as long as that person is not their union representative or employer. This section
applies to all voters, regardless if Section 203 applies to their voting jurisdiction or if the
voter is considered limited in English proficiency.
The National Voter Registration Act provides a federal form for voter registration.
This helps to enfranchise Asian Americans because it has been translated into many Asian
languages and states must accept this form, whether or not the state provides its own forms in
languages other than English.
Enacted in 2002, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) provides states with funding to
update voting systems and expand voting accessibility. HAVA also allows voters to cast
provisional ballots and provides voters with sample ballot, instructions on how to vote, and
information about their rights as voters. Although HAVA funds can be used for a variety of
purposes, they provide a potential source of funding for states to improve language
accessibility.
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In its monitoring of the 2012 presidential election, the Asian American Legal Defense
and Education Fund (AALDEF) found that Asian Americans encountered voting barriers.
The most common problems were lack of language access, inappropriate requests for
identification, unprofessional conduct by poll workers, poll site confusion, and missing or
misspelled names on the voter rolls. In some jurisdictions, polling locations did not have
translated ballots, despite being legally required to have them. In jurisdictions where
translated ballots were available, some did not translate the candidates’ names. Many polling
locations did not have appropriate translated signage or voting materials and many sites
lacked an adequate number of interpreters. In addition, elections websites were difficult to
navigate to language resources and often the translation quality was inadequate.
Although the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and Help
America Vote act provide legal protections and potential funds to ensure voting accessibility
for Asian Americans who have limited English proficiency, Asian American still encounter
barriers to voting in the form inappropriate actions by poll workers, lack of voting materials
with quality translations, and a shortage of interpreters, among other issues.
Works Cited
Bilingual Ballots and Language Assistance for Asian Americans. Issue brief. Asian American
Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
"Minority Language Citizens - Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act." The U.S. Department
of Justice - Civil Rights Division. The U.S. Department of Justice. Web. 20 Apr.
2015.
Lee, Jeanette, Terry Ao Minnis, and Carl Hum. The Right to Assistance of Your Choice at
the Polls. Rep. Asian Americans Advancing Justice, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Apr.
2015.
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Ramakrishnan, Karthick, and Farah Z. Ahmad. State of Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders Series: A Multifaceted Portrait of a Growing Population. Publication.
Center for American Progress, Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Vattamala, Jerry. Asian American Access to Democracy in the 2012 Elections. Rep. Asian
Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Relevant Websites
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote
http://www.apiavote.org/
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
http://aaldef.org/
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
http://www.advancingequality.org/
U.S. Department of Justice
http://www.justice.gov/