July 22 was a day of victory to many Chinatown residents and civic rights advocates, for it was the day in which the bill to legislate bilingual ballots with transliterated names in Chinese and Vietnamese was passed by the state Senate. The bill has been signed by Governor Deval Patrick and will take affect in January 2011.
“Today is a historic day that represents a critical step toward equal voting rights for Asian-Americans—particularly elderly Asian-Americans—in the City of Boston” said Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, who represents Chinatown, and was the lead sponsor of the bill.
State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, who co-sponsored the bill, joined in on the celebration outside the Senate floor after the bill had passed.
“This bill is about civic engagement.” said Michlewitz. “I think that’s what we’re all trying to do here. This is one segment of the population for whom language is a barrier for them. This bill will allow them to participate to the fullest extent.”
The bill applies only to elections held in the City of Boston, but includes elections at the municipal, state and federal levels. Chinese/English and Vietnamese/English bilingual ballots would be available in those precincts where the linguistic population is concentrated. The proposal mandates these ballots in polling places in which there are 35 or more voters who speak only Chinese or 30 or more voters who speak only Vietnamese.
It also requires that Chinese ballots be transliterated by the Boston Board of Election Commissioners to include the printing of Chinese characters to represent the phonetic equivalent of the syllables of an English name. The board would inform each candidate of the transliteration of his or her name. The candidate could accept the transliteration, request that it be changed or decline that it be used on the ballot.
Supporters of the bill maintained that the legislation would allow many elderly Asian-Americans who do not read English to participate in the voting process, and that the transliteration is necessary because the Chinese language does not use the Western alphabet.
“Most of these citizens are limited-English-proficient elders, who were able to take the citizenship test in their own language based on their age and long term residency in the US,” said Cynthia Mark, an attorney with the Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS).
Elderly Asian-American voters felt it was a hard-won battle. “This is a very happy occasion. When bilingual ballots ended in 2008, we were at a loss. We have been fighting for so long. We will be able to vote easily now,
without fear of making mistakes. This victory would not have been possible without voters organizing. I’d like to thank all of the supporters of the bilingual ballots,” said Dan Xin Chen, a Chinatown resident.
According to the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), the city of Boston launched Chinese and Vietnamese bilingual ballots through an agreement with the US Department of Justice in 2005, but the agreement expired in 2008. Since then, numerous elected officials in the city and state government had been lobbying for this legislation.
Opponents argued that transliteration is imprecise and would confuse voters. They questioned why only Chinese voters should receive this special treatment. Secretary of State William Galvin is one of the bill’s chief opponents.
“Mitt Romney’s name was translated a short time ago and The (Boston) Globe had it down as ‘sticky or uncooked rice.’ Fred Thompson, another presidential candidate, was ‘virtual soup.’ But my favorite of all time is Mayor Thomas Menino … The first alternative was ‘rainbow farmer’ and the second one was ‘imbecile, ‘” argued Senator Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) on the Senate floor during the debate.
Despite the oppositions, the bill passed the Senate with a unanimous vote. Following the vote, supporters and advocates were invited by Chang-Díaz to the Senate floor, where they received a standing ovation from legislators for their tireless efforts to see the bill through.
