Meeting voters’ language needs

We’re watching a population trend of communities that speak languages other than English moving out of urban areas and spreading out to suburbs and rural areas. This suggests that over the next few years, more jurisdictions will be required to offer materials from ballots to voter guides in languages other than English.

This spring, we started a project to look at issues around language access for voters. Language assistance under the Voting Rights Act affects voters who are Asian American, Alaska Native, American Indian, and persons of Spanish heritage who have low English proficiency. Right now, about 22 million eligible voting-age citizens are covered under Section 203.

At this point, we have more questions than answers. We’d love to hear about your experiences with supporting voters with low English proficiency. Write to us at hello@civicdesign.org to tell us your story.

In the meantime, read on for some lessons we’ve learned so far from research about voter guides.

Meeting voters’ language needs

We’ve focused a lot on voter guides over the last few years because we think that they are one of the most important tools for communicating between an election department about what’s on the ballot and what the experience of marking and casting a ballot will be like.

Voter guides can be minimalist or deeply detailed. But if they’re not available in the languages that people in your community use everyday, those voters may be left out. In our research, voters with low English proficiency tell us that they want to have better English skills, but there are a lot of election-specific terms used in voting. People who are working to become more deeply engaged in civic life want to be sure they understand what they’re voting on.

Many of the tips and lessons that come out of research on voter guides apply to other forms, notices, signs, and websites, as well.

Signal the languages available

As we tested voter guides with voters with varying language ability, we learned a ton about what helps people with low English proficiency. Bilingual speakers preferred interleaving facing pages because it helped them compare the two languages and improved their understanding. Being able to compare was useful for voters since some election words do not exist in Spanish or voters may be unfamiliar. Also consider that voters may have limited language in both languages, so showing both languages offers extra support. We think that this practice carries over to ballots and websites, as well.

When creating a bilingual materials, make sure to:

  • Be as consistent as possible with the layout. A consistent layout helps show voters how to find information in their preferred language.
  • Signal the languages available near the top of the page. This helps voters quickly see whether they have to scan the whole page for information in a specific language.
  • Use visual indications to differentiate the languages. It can be helpful to use a slightly smaller font size, use italics on forms, or even a slight color difference—as long as the visual differences aren’t too great.
  • Remember to mark languages in your word processor or on the website that the materials are coded for the correct language. This will help screen readers know what language to use and how to correctly pronounce words.

Resources

Our teammate Taapsi Ramchandani was a major contributor to this newsletter. Thanks, Taapsi! 

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

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