Recently, a federal judge ruled that elections officials in 32 Florida counties must provide sample ballots printed in Spanish for the general election held to be in November.
Walker’s order specifies that the Spanish-language sample ballots when ordered from Print shops are to be identical to the official ballots in size, layout, fonts and information.
Puerto Ricans and others in Bradenton who are more comfortable reading Spanish will be pleased to know that the class-action lawsuit filed last month includes Manatee County. The ruling to make Spanish language sample ballots available for the up-coming election was on behalf of plaintiff Marta Valentina Rivera Madera, a transplanted Puerto Rican living in Alachua County.
The suit asked that the official ballots be made available in Spanish as well as English and that bilingual poll workers be available at each precinct. Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court sided with the plaintiffs’ arguments, but expressed concern that ordering election administrators to completely comply would inflict too great a hardship with only two months left till the election.
The suit was based on the portion of the Voting Rights Act stating that those educated in schools where the predominant language is not English should have ballots in their native language. Additionally, this was included to protect the right to vote stateside for Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans and that Florida has seen a post-Hurricane Maria influx of Puerto Ricans.
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