Language access helps with acculturation

Getting access to the ballot and being an informed voter takes more than translation. People with low English proficiency often have to learn the systems of government and voting, too. When local election administrators have language access plans that enrich your outreach approach, those actions can also help you ensure that you are working to include voters with low English proficiency in your voter education and voter information work.

Language access can be the key to civics education for people with low English proficiency. 

We like to say that language access is the gateway to learning English and understanding how to be an American citizen. There’s a big gap between what someone needs to know to pass their civics test in a naturalization interview and what they need to be an informed voter. When you develop a language access plan for people with low English proficiency, your voter information will also help native English speakers who are new to voting and elections. 

Here are three things you can start doing today.

1. Make a pocket guide to voting for new citizens.

Provide materials that help people with low English proficiency prepare for elections in languages other than English.

For new citizens voting for the first time, it’s extremely hard to know where to start. Providing an easy-to-read, translated voter guide that includes basic information can help. Our templates can be modified for your upcoming election.  They focus on:

• Ways to vote
• How to mark a ballot
• Information about accessibility
• Key deadlines

2. Try somewhere new for lunch.

Seek out ethnic media outlets in your area and meet those communities.

Go where you might encounter readers of ethnic or heritage newspapers, like grocery stores or restaurants. Introduce yourself to the owner and say that you could use help learning about what the community needs for voter education and information. 

Personal contact is great, but you need a wider reach, too. Plan to reach voters across audio, video, and social media. 

3. Pre-write a few Facebook posts.

Develop a communications plan.

Use your voter education and information programs to give everyone a small civics lesson. Develop a set of messages you can target to the media outlets you identified. Use those messages again in print materials and on social media to reinforce them and expand the possible ways someone might encounter the messages. 

“You provide assistance to all voters who need assistance. You can’t just focus on people who need physical assistance. Language provides another access to the ballot.”

Grace Wachlarowicz, Director of Elections and & Voter Services, City of Minneapolis

Resources 

• Workbook Vol. 103 Planning language access – our workbook for election officials based on interviews with new citizens about what civic life means to them.
• Language access for new citizens – project page
• Research report: What works for outreach to communities with low English proficiency and low civics literacy
• Pocket Guide for Voters in Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic
• White paper: Designing election systems for language access

This was originally published in our Civic Designing newsletter. Subscribe on Mailchimp to get election design tips delivered to your mailbox.