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Federal Judge Orders Spanish Language Sample Ballots In Escambia, Santa Rosa
September 8, 2018
A federal judge Friday required elections officials in 32 counties — including Escambia and Santa Rosa - to provide Spanish-language sample ballots for the November general election — but said there wasn’t enough time to order more far-reaching steps to help Puerto Ricans eligible to vote in Florida.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in a 27-page ruling, partially sided with plaintiffs who sought an injunction to require Spanish-language ballots and other assistance for what are believed to be more than 30,000 Puerto Ricans in the counties.
“Voting in a language you do not understand is like asking this court (to) decide the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry — ineffective, in other words,” Walker wrote. “Courts have long held that the right to vote includes not only the right to physically enter a polling place and fill out a ballot but also the right to comprehend and understand what is on that ballot.”
But with the election less than two months away, he acknowledged concerns raised by county elections supervisors about making changes at this late stage. In issuing a preliminary injunction requiring the Spanish-language sample ballots, he declined to order such things as Spanish-language ballots and hiring bilingual poll workers.
Walker wrote that granting “all of plaintiffs’ requested relief would place significant hardships on election administrators.”
“If this court denies all relief to plaintiffs, they will lose their right to a meaningful vote,” he wrote. “This court would, in effect, be authorizing disenfranchisement. If this court grants all plaintiffs’ requested relief, defendants will be required to spend considerable time and effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act. They would have to do so in the lead-up to the November general election, which involves significant planning, logistics, and oversight — all of which is well-documented in the record.”
The potential class-action lawsuit was filed in August by a coalition of groups, with Alachua County resident Marta Valentina Rivera Madera as the named plaintiff. It targeted Alachua, Bay, Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Escambia, Flagler, Hernando, Highlands, Indian River, Jackson, Lake, Leon, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Monroe, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Pasco, Putnam, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Sumter, Taylor and Wakulla counties.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys have focused on part of the Voting Rights Act that is aimed at people who were educated in schools where the predominant language was not English and that seeks to ensure they are not denied the right to vote. A motion filed by the plaintiffs said Congress enacted that part of the law “to protect the rights of Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans to vote stateside.”
The plaintiffs also have pointed to an influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory last year. Walker’s ruling said Rivera, the named plaintiff, moved to Gainesville after the storm.
The plaintiffs filed an underlying lawsuit and sought a preliminary injunction to try to quickly get changes for the Nov. 6 general election. Walker’s ruling dealt only with the preliminary injunction but appeared to make clear he backs the plaintiffs on the underlying issues.
“Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” he wrote. “Unique among Americans, they are not educated primarily in English — and do not need to be. But, like all American citizens, they possess the fundamental right to vote. The issue in this case is whether Florida officials, consistent with longstanding federal law, must provide assistance to Puerto Rican voters who wish to vote. Under the plain language of the Voting Rights Act, they must.”
Walker, who has repeatedly clashed with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration about voting-related issues, openly mocked state elections officials.
“Here we are again. The clock hits 6:00 a.m. Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’ starts playing. Denizens of and visitors to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania eagerly await the groundhog’s prediction. And the state of Florida is alleged to violate federal law in its handling of elections,” he wrote sarcastically.
The ruling said 13 Florida counties — Broward, DeSoto, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Polk, and Seminole — provide Spanish-language ballots to comply with another part of the Voting Rights Act. Also, Collier and Volusia counties provide Spanish-language material, though they have not been required to do so. The lawsuit targeted 32 counties with Puerto Rican populations.
Walker’s order requires the Florida Department of State to direct elections supervisors in the 32 counties to make available Spanish-language sample ballots that have “matching size, information, layout, placement, and fonts as an official ballot does.” Also, the supervisors will be required to publish the Spanish-language sample ballots on their websites and provide signs at polling places to make sure voters are aware of the sample ballots.
Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton, who is a defendant in the case as a representative of other supervisors, said in court documents that she has taken a number of steps to try to help Spanish-speaking voters, such as providing a materials in Spanish, providing bilingual support in her office and planning to have a voters’ guide translated into Spanish.
Similarly, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said this week his office has worked to make accommodations.
“All of our election guides and voting guides were all translated,” Earley told The News Service of Florida. “We had printed copies, and copies available at the polling places. During early voting, we had one person request assistance in voting in Spanish, out of 206,000 registered voters or the 76,000 that voted.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Comments
24 Responses to “Federal Judge Orders Spanish Language Sample Ballots In Escambia, Santa Rosa”
Although math skills are not a requirement for citizenship, speaking, reading and writing English is.
hence:
citizenship is required to vote
and speaking, reading and writing English is required for citizenship
therefore speaking, reading and writing English is required to vote
Ballots need to be printed only in English!!!!!!!
Deductive reasoning.
My grandparents were Russian my wife’s were Italian. We were both REQUIRED to speak English in our households…. and proud to do so!!!
Hold the presses! Not the same subject, but in the same vein. I received my new Medicare Card today. The instructions are in 14 languages! Welcome to America.
THE FEDERAL JUDGE DID NOT SEE WHERE THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA VOTED (BACH IN 1986 I BELIEVE) TO HAVE ENGLISH AS THIER LANGUAGE
@kam so all judges should not have the ability to undo a law that is slanted or burdensome to a certain population? If it’s left to a crooked politician then yes every law would be slanted one way or to the other. That’s why it’s takes a federal judge to and supreme court to keep these bogus political hacks from making laws that are prejudiced against the population. The politicians will slant laws to serve their views if not checked. Legal immigration is a good thing. So why is everyone so squirrelly about a Spanish ballot.
Yes, but federal judges are supposed to interpret the law not make them! Yes, America is the most giving country but we speak English. They should have a interpreter there to read it to them like they do at the driving license office. When they give them the license it’s in English not Spanish. Just a thought, they can be doing this for Florida can have their first socialist governor.
Good ruling by the judge. If you pay taxes and abide by our laws then everyone should leave the bigotry and hate at home and don’t spew that venom at someone who doesn’t comprehend English as well as their own language. I’ve been in the line at fast food and the convenience store and hear some of the locals around here with a very broken english dialect that is dang near impossible to understand and they were born and raised here.
@Phil, you have no right to tell anyone to go anywhere or call anybody lazy. This is not your country alone, it is ours. Stop being a bully. Who said anybody didn’t want to learn English. It takes time to learn to speak it and to learn to read it and then to comprehend it. Even average Americans have a hard time comprehending a ballot especially when there are amendments and they’ve been going to school for at least 12 years, I hope.
I have a feeling that a lot of what’s going on here is assisting illegal aliens from other Hispanic countries to vote without accidentally voting Republican or conservative. (And before anybody gives me this, “We’re a country of immigrants” business again, note that I said “illegal”.)
If you want to live, work and vote in this or any other country then you should learn to assimilate. This is the most diverse country in the world. I don’t here anyone complaining about immigrants are treated there. Comparing today’s immigrants to the past is stupid! In the past they appreciated becoming Americans! Now most just come here to exploit this country. America is getting weaker and weaker!
A little social studies lesson; People born in Puerto Rico are US Citizens much the same as the citizens of Alaska and Hawaii were before those states were admitted to the union. Our Fla. legislature did a great job of enacting voter ID laws that would make it difficult or impossible for non-citizens to vote in our elections. The left hates our voter ID laws because they cannot bus voters from polling place to polling place, or state to state so that they can vote multiple times, or otherwise vote illegally. I agree that we shouldn’t print ballots in any other language than English, but it’s not that big of deal.
I am really appalled by some of these comments. We are a country settled by immigrants. That’s where our strength lies. I’m not sure some of you really understand what it means to be an American. Sad, ignorant and narrow minded. Open your minds and your hearts. It’s not all about you and the people like you. You’re living in a bubble that’s already burst. You’re the minority now. How does it feel?
Learn English or deal with the consequences! Spanish speaking Americans have a duty to learn English. People that make excuses for the ones that are to lazy to learn English, need to go also.
…………”if you are not smart enough to even learn the language spoken around you”
It is dumb to think that if someone doesn’t learn English fast enough it’s because they are not smart. It’s different when you learn to speak as a baby than to learn an entire language as an adult. Some people go to school twelve years and still don’t comprehend the english language. Anyone of you who took Spanish classes in high school, I challenge you to go to a Spanish speaking country and see how smart you sound and how much you understand.
Having Spanish language ballots is not new..our region is just slow about these things. And again it doesn’t hurt anybody to have multi language ballots. Stop whining like somebody is poking a knife in you.
Plus Hispanics generally vote conservative unless a candidate just turns on them!
Who said that I am politically Correct! While stationed in Thailand nd Okinawa I had to learn enough of their language to get by. What country are we living in. This is only one of many with the immigrants of today. Instead of being here for years they expect us to change for them and , sorry, are to lazy to change for our standards. They want to disrupt our dociety.
Judging by the comments, a lot of native English speakers are not proficient in it. I bet those who cannot master their native language do not understand what’s on the ballots. As for adding Spanish to it – I’d say no, if you are not smart enough to even learn the language spoken around you, why should you make a decision on more important subjects?
Sorry to offend a bunch of you all here 
Democracy is great until you meet in person an average voter 
On a more general note, I’d only let folks with IQ above average to vote
Is this a bi-lingual country?
I thought one of the requirements for citizenship was at least a rudimentary understanding of the English language. I would think the Puerto Ricans have been subject to U.S. benevolence long enough (1899) to have, at least, met this requirement.
It’s all a play to get the Democrat vote in November for Governor, then the President. If it wasn’t , it would have been done a long time ago.
It’s in the Lord’s hands, he will allow whomever to be Governor in November. But, lift up your eye’s church, your redemption draweth nigh.
Not sure what the outrage is about here. English is the hardest language to learn and by the misspellings/grammatical errors on this comment board shows that those who consider themselves native citizens have some difficulty at times knowing the difference between there, their, or they’re. Having Spanish ballots available for spanish speaking US citizens doesn’t harm us, the regular citizens whatsoever.
Just FYI, this article is not about letting non-citizens vote, it’s about allowing Spanish speaking US citizens to use a a Spanish-language ballot so that they can understand it better.
Another FYI , Puerto Ricans native language is Spanish but most speak English, too.
I admit I did not read the entire article as I was asking myself, are these people they’re concerned about US citizens and a citizen living in Florida? If not a citizen why are they being allowed to vote? I m sure I m not the only one that feels this way. By all means publish the ballots for them in Spanish, if they are a US citizen and does not fully comprehend our language , yet!
Rediculous
When in Rome….do what the Romans do !
Just because a person can read a ballot does not mean that he/she can read information put out by canidates on the ballot.
Where does it end? We now in addition to spanish need to include the language of Puerto Rico? Is Aramic or Farsi next? The Puerto Ricans have every right to vote, so the solution at this midnight hour would be to have interpreters at all the polls. However, that is not practical.
What’s really going on here? It’s my opinion should Desantis win, the howling of unfair will begin, that’s what it’s all about.