Expanding the VOTE Act
Expanding the VOTE Act would broaden and strengthen language access in federal elections by revising the Voting Rights Act’s language-minority requirements (Section 203), adding translation duties for more groups, and creating a new grant program to help jurisdictions translate voting materials. The bill requires states to provide voting materials in covered languages (including both digital and printed materials) and, with tribal considerations, sets conditions for translations and training election workers. It also authorizes a new incentive grant program (funded at $15 million) to help jurisdictions translate materials for minority language groups not currently covered under existing thresholds, and it directs a Comptroller General study to examine potential changes to thresholds and language-group definitions, with a report due within one year of enactment. Overall, the bill aims to improve multilingual access to voting information and materials while expanding federal oversight and support for translation efforts.
Key Points
- 1Expands and clarifies what counts as voting materials (registration notices, forms, ballots, instructions, digital and printed materials) and requires translation for covered languages, with explicit inclusion of digital materials.
- 2Strengthens tribal language considerations: American Indian and Alaska Native languages receive protections, with a framework allowing for oral instructions when translations are unwritten, and requires written translations for election workers with tribal government consent to ensure accuracy.
- 3Creates a new incentive-grants program through the Election Assistance Commission to help states/subdivisions translate voting materials for languages not triggering current Section 203 coverage; grants cover reasonable translation costs and require ongoing provision in future elections unless population declines significantly; grants cannot be stacked for the same language group.
- 4Adds notice and enforcement mechanisms: the Attorney General must notify states/subdivisions when they fall below certain coverage thresholds, with thresholds defined in relation to population size or percentage of the relevant language-minority group.
- 5Commission study and reporting requirement: the Comptroller General must study potential changes to language-minority thresholds and to expand the definition of language minorities (including Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, and other appropriate languages), with a report due within one year of enactment.