Warning that failure to accommodate Florida’s large influx of Spanish-speaking American citizens in the upcoming elections may violate the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, state Senator Victor Torres on Monday joined six fellow Democratic lawmakers in calling on Florida’s Secretary of State to ensure bilingual ballot information is available to voters.
“Florida is home to over 20 million individuals and more than 4 million of them are of Hispanic or Latino origin,” wrote Torres in a letter sent to Secretary of State Ken Detzner. “Additionally, with the influx of evacuees from Puerto Rico, there are an additional 300,000 American citizens who are eligible to vote in this upcoming election cycle. Providing election information and ballots in Spanish-language are essential for some qualified electors to participate in the 2018 Florida elections process.”
The letter, signed by Senators Torres, Annette Taddeo, Jose Javier Rodriguez, Linda Stewart, and Representatives Robert Asencio, John Cortes, Carlos Guillermo Smith, and Amy Mercado, follows efforts last week by several Hispanic and civil right organizations, including Demos and Latino Justice, calling for 13 of Florida’s 67 Supervisor of Election offices who are not currently supplying election materials and information in Spanish-language format to do so under requirements of the Federal Voting Rights Act. Their letter similarly asserts that under Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act, bilingual ballots, election materials and poll worker assistance should be provided to America citizens whose primary language is Spanish.
The lawmakers are seeking reassurances that federal law will be obeyed.
“We are requesting that you respond to the allegations that some Supervisor of Elections offices may be in violation of the Federal Voting Rights Act by failing to provide required Spanish-language elections materials. We further request you outline any plans your office has to ensure that no qualified electors are discouraged from exercising their Constitutional rights to participate in the 2018 election due to a failure of the local Supervisor of Elections to provide this information,” they wrote.
“Florida has a long history of failing to accommodate citizens whose native language may be other than English,” said Torres, the only Florida Senator of Puerto Rican heritage and representative for the largest population of Puerto Ricans living in the Sunshine State. “With more than 4 million Hispanics now living in Florida, there is no excuse for not providing election services to citizens in the language with which they feel most confident.”
