With the election under two weeks away, voters are making their final choices for whom they will vote on Nov. 7. Candidates are trying to influence those voters who have not made a decision. The State Election Board is gearing up for the election, ensuring that there is a free and transparent election. With the long list of new voting rules the State Election Board enacted this year, there has been some confusion on campus and throughout the state about new rules in voter registration, such as what documentation a voter has to provide in order to establish residency.
The State Elections Board has enacted new changes to voter registration, such as the requirement of including a driver's license number or last four digits of the voter's social security number on registration forms. The State Elections Board also produced voter registration and absentee voter applications in Spanish and Hmong for the first time. The federal government requires states to print voting materials for minority groups that are above 5 percent of the state's population and have limited English proficiency. The Spanish and Hmong populations who speak their native language at home, which total approximately 180,000 and 21,000 residents respectively according to the American Community Survey, are not large enough to qualify for federally-mandated voting materials in their native languages. The state, however, took the measure at the request of these communities as well as to broaden the democratic process, according to Kevin Kennedy, the State Election Board's executive director.
Groups on both sides of the debate have chimed in, and the printing of voting materials in languages other than English has created some strange bedfellows. Groups such as ProEnglish, who advocate making English the official language of the United States, oppose such a measure because it undermines the assimilation process of immigrants. Those who support the issue include the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and conservative U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. Rep. Sensenbrenner has supported "English only" initiatives in Congress but believes that no voter should be confused about how to vote for the candidate of his choice.
Within the United States, there has always been a debate over whether English should be the official language of our country. Those who support adopting English as the official language of the United States say that the lack of English language skills hinders immigrants integrating into American society. Without basic language skills, many immigrants find it difficult to find a job or even receive proper medical care. Groups who oppose this measure, such as the ACLU, state that instituting an "English Only" policy will only produce more harm than good. Forcing immigrants to use English may lead to hassles, confusion or even harm if there are no materials in Spanish and Hmong in hospitals or government offices. This debate has been ongoing for decades, and there is no easy solution for the problem of language use in the relatively monolingual United States.
Steps to provide government services in languages other than English will always spark this debate. The intention of the State Election Board is both well-intentioned and proactive. The board is doing its part to spread the democratic process to more voters. The candidates, however, are not.
While Hispanic and Hmong voters will be able to register to vote in their native language, they will face difficulties in finding Spanish and Hmong-language information about the candidates from the candidates' own websites. The campaign website for Rep. Mark Green has no information in Spanish or Hmong, and Gov. Jim Doyle has only one podcast in Spanish at the very bottom of his webpage. U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and rival Dave Magnum also have English-only websites. Advocacy groups such as Fair Wisconsin and the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin also have monolingual websites. Even Rep. Sensenbrenner, who advocates a multilingual approach to voting, has only English on his campaign website. Only the ACLU has complete Spanish pages on its website.
It is difficult enough to educate the English-speaking American public on issues that face their local areas and the state. For those who do not speak English as their native language, there are added barriers to finding information about candidates so that they too can make educated decisions on Election Day. The candidates themselves in Wisconsin are failing those groups who need campaign information in languages other than English. Hispanic and Hmong voters can now register to vote in their native language, but the candidates leave these voting blocks with little information to make a decision Nov. 7.
Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in linguistics.
