WASHINGTON — Acting on a measure with major implications for Southern California, the House approved a bill Friday that would require county governments to provide voter materials and ballots in more foreign languages.
The legislation, approved by a 237-135 vote with support from President Bush, would require counties to supply non-English versions of voter information and ballots for Latino, Asian-American, American Indian and native Alaskan minority groups of 10,000 or more, provided they have limited proficiency in English and a literacy rate lower than the U.S. average.
The bill also also would extend the language aid provision of the Voting Rights Act for 15 years beyond its scheduled expiration next month. The measure was sent to the Senate where its election-year prospects were regarded as good.
"The biggest single burden would fall on Los Angeles County, which would be required to provide information in six languages," said an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
Under the bill, Los Angeles County would be required to supply ballots and voter materials in four languages in addition to the English and Spanish versions it now provides. Citizens would be offered ballots in Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog, the language used by Filipinos.
Orange County would be required to provide ballots in Vietnamese and Spanish. San Diego County would have to add Spanish-language voting material.
Opponents of the bill, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), argued that voters should know English and decried "linguistic segregation" they said the legislation would encourage.
"It will destroy the America I love," Rohrabacher said. He urged his colleagues to "reject the whole idea of bilingualism."
Supporters, however, contended the bill would extend the franchise to millions of Latinos, Asian-Americans, American Indians and Alaska natives who now face a language barrier at the polls.
"It's a breakthrough," said Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-Pico Rivera). "It's an important signal to people not proficient in English that their government encourages their participation in the political process."
The Bush Administration supported the 15-year extension of the Voting Rights Act provisions, but argued that the threshold should be 20,000 foreign-language citizens, rather than 10,000. Under the current federal law, bilingual assistance is required only if more than 5% of the voting age citizens share a single foreign language, their literacy rate is lower than the national average and the Census Bureau finds that they have limited proficiency in English.
