Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Reflections on the Senate All-Nighter
Judges matter. One judge decided to overturn Alabama's official English law (Sandoval) and the U.S. Supreme Court reversed his decision.
That is why I took part in the all-night debate. Hours were spent discussing serious things (the role of the Senate under our Constitution, for one) which happens so rarely in any political body these days.
|posted by Jim on 6:39 PM|
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English: The World's Language (Including Weasels)
The November 17th Wall Street Journal tells of author Michael Moore, who gave a talk to an overflow crowd in Berlin, Germany, on November 16th (sample "please stop this God bless America stuff"). Moore's talk, and all the questions and answers, were entirely in English.
|posted by Jim on 6:33 PM|
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Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Pryor Restraint Exposed Tonight
I'll be taking part in tonight's all-night effort to allow Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to receive an up or down vote in the U.S. Senate on his nomination as a federal judge. This article of mine explains why English First is supporting Pryor.
|posted by Jim on 5:23 PM|
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Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Translator Electioneering in Illinois
On Friday, the Lake County election board was ordered by a federal judge to put bilingual translators in all 32 East Chicago precinct polling places to comply with sections of the Voting Rights Act. Wieser said they had few problems with the last-minute arrangements, with only one complaint of a translator who was suspected of campaigning for a City Council candidate. Wieser said that translator was moved to a different council district.
-- "No vote fraud pall cast over election," NWITimes
|posted by Jim on 7:14 PM|
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Texas Vietnamese Voting Update
Two translators stood by to help, but they said they were not busy, since most Vietnamese preferred to use relatives to translate.
"We haven't had any problems," said Hieu Binh, one of the translators.
Some precincts refused to let Vietnamese voters use their own translators. At All Saints Lutheran Church on West Bellfort, election officials insisted Vietnamese voters work with translator Chan Ho.
"The translator is supposed to be helping them, not the family member," said Precinct 649 Alternate Judge Ruth Duson-Phillips.
Ho said the lack of a Vietnamese version of the ballot made it more difficult for about 20 voters in the precinct.
-- Houston Chronicle, November 5, 2003.
|posted by Jim on 7:10 PM|
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Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Vietnamese Voting Complaints in Texas
Harris County, Texas, will provide "Vietnamese translators, sample ballots in Vietnamese and informational voting materials at targeted polling places" for today's election. Not good enough, claim the professional activists, who wonder why Vietnamese isn't also included on the new electronic voting machines:
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.
Interestingly, the same people are already complaining about "interpreters were not proficient in the [Vietnamese] language." Shouldn't we all be more concerned about voters who are not proficient in English?
|posted by Jim on 4:12 AM|
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Spanish Ballots Ordered in IL County
From the Northwest Indiana Times:
U.S. District Court Judge Allen Sharp signed a memorandum Friday afternoon forbidding county officials from holding an election here that fails to comply with sections of the Voting Rights Act, designed to help citizens who are not proficient in the English language.
The county must provide bilingual interpreters in all 32 city precincts as well as signs in Spanish stating, "If you need assistance with voting in Spanish, let us know and it will be provided."
County officials claimed "state law required all precinct poll workers to speak and write only English language in the poll place to prevent illegal campaigning in a different language." Fears of vote fraud were not ungrounded:
A special Lake County grand jury is investigating dozens of instances of alleged vote fraud in East Chicago, Schererville and other communities against persons for whom English is a second language. Schererville has a large Serbian-speaking community.
There are allegations campaign workers encouraged such persons to vote although they were ineligible because they live outside the voting district. There also are allegations campaign workers illegally assisted them in voting by mail-in absentee ballots by providing pre-completed ballots they needed only to sign.
Meanwhile, the ACLU lost its effort to block Republican "challengers" from monitoring voting in Louisville, KY. The ACLU's suit claimed efforts to ensure only legitimate voters cast a ballot in today's election could "slow voting."
Yet ACLU-approved bilingual ballots and bilingual voting assistance do far more to slow voting down than any ballot security effort anywhere. And ballot security efforts, unlike bilingual ballots, cost the taxpayers nothing.
|posted by Jim on 3:52 AM|
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