On September 5, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker heard Rivera Madera v Detzner, n.d., 1:18cv-152. Some counties in Florida already provide ballots in both English and Spanish, but this lawsuit argues that many more counties must do that as well, under federal law. According to this story, the ruling is likely to give both sides something but not everything. The case was filed on August 16, 2018, and it seems likely full relief will not be forthcoming because the case was filed too close to the election.
We are an English-speaking country; we should only be printing ballots in English. If you don’t wantto learn our language, then why should you expect to choose our government?
Tim, we have no national language, and it is just fine for someone to live in this country and never want to learn English. Of course, they most likely will in time, but why make it harder for citizens to vote? We should print ballots in any language we need to so more citizens can vote, period. None of this ‘English Only’ crap.
Officially, the United States has two official languages, because Puerto Rico is part of the United States, and in Puerto Rico, both Spanish and English are official languages. I once visited the Puerto Rico legislature, and all the proceedings by legislators were in Spanish.
Ah well, that’s a pity, I thought we didn’t have one. Thanks for the clarification.
Yes, no ballots for non-English speakers and no taxes either.
The counties in Florida that are required to provide Spanish-language ballots do so under a different provision of the law than that being asserted under the current lawsuit. The other counties are required to do based on a large number of Spanish speakers who do not speak English well. This is updated twice per decade based on census data, and was updated in 2016.
The current lawsuit is based on a provision of the law that says you can’t disenfranchise someone because they were educated in a language other than English at a school under US sovereignty, which would mainly apply to Puerto Rico. States that had literacy tests, might permit a citizen with a high school diploma vote, but would require other persons to demonstrate literacy in English. But they might specifically exclude persons who were not educated in English.
If there were a large number of persons from Puerto Rico (and other Spanish-speaking countries) the county would already be required to have Spanish-language ballots.
See the Balkans 1914 and in the 1990s.
How many nation-state areas are defined by language for many centuries ???
Hmmm- England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, China, etc.
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Florida – another area for possible USA Civil WAR II ??? —
blacks v english whites v hispanic whites
Also in CA and TX esp.
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-the-united-states-official-language/
– might be a bit not correct.
Hawaii special stuff —
20 USC 7512: Findings Text contains those laws in effect on September 5, 2018
From Title 20-EDUCATIONCHAPTER 70-STRENGTHENING AND IMPROVEMENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY
SCHOOLS SUBCHAPTER VI- INDIAN, NATIVE HAWAIIAN, AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION Part B-Native Hawaiian Education
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Balkans stuff also in Pacific Ocean ???
How many States have multi-language stuff for voting instructions ???
— separate but NOT on the ballots.
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Vote by filling in oval [sample filled in oval]
OFFICE XYZ
Vote for ONE.
OFFICE JKL
Vote for NO MORE than TWO.
In the 1970’s the voting Rights Act of 1965 was amended to include people that do not speak English that are U.S. Citizens. Such as those living in a territory, on a reservation, or those that immigrated here and became naturalized citizens. If you think about it Native Americans were here long before English, French, Spanish, German, or any other settler moved here.