County to offer ballots in more languages
Cook County voters will soon be able to request ballots in eight more languages besides the four already offered.
The Voting Opportunity and Translation Equity ordinance, which passed the County Board Thursday, would require the county clerk to offer fully translated ballots in eight more languages over the next two years.
The pilot program will begin with the March primary, when ballots will be offered in Korean and Tagalog.
Starting in November, ballots will be translated into six more languages, including Polish, Arabic and Russian. The translated ballots will be available electronically, by audio ballot and can be requested on an on-demand basis for mail-in ballots.
Printed translated ballots won’t begin until 2021.
In addition to English-language ballots, the clerk’s office is already required to provide language assistance in Spanish, Chinese and Hindi under amendments to the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1992. Voting touch-screen machines are already equipped with ballots in English, Spanish, Chinese and Hindi.
Though the county is starting with eight languages, there is a possibility the ballots could be translated into more. In November 2020, and at least every three years after that, the county clerk or someone the clerk designates shall review data on limited English-proficient populations in the county to determine whether more languages should be added.
Leaders of those communities will be consulted in the decision-making process, according to the language of the ordinance. By February 2021, each single language that has more than 13,000 speakers will then get a fully translated ballot.