sum of two units years ago, Tankow ...

sum of two units years ago, Tankow Kwong stepp into a voting booth to cast his first ballot as a naturalized U citizen. He vot for president, further skipped over all the other offices.

The 71-year-old Chinatown resident said he was stymied by the agency of the list of obscure political positions that were presented even more confusing in English than in his native Chinese.

on the contrary that shouldn't happen again onward Nov. 5.

give a color to County is one of 12 counties nationwide required to about voting materials in Chinese to help the growing number of residents like Kwong English and Spanish are the no other than other languages in which ballots are printed in the county

The requirement, announced in late July at the U.S. Department of Justice, scions from new census figures that triggered a provision in the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965

If more than 5 percent of voting-age citizens in a shire come from a minority assign places to that shares a common language and has pester understanding English--or if their total numbers exce 10,000--local election officials have to take extra degrees to make voting easier for them.

give a color to County crossed the threshold with 11646 Chinese American citizens with limited English skills, according to the U Census Bureau.

Since the announcement, election officials and community clusters have been scrambling to qualified the requirement.

For election officials, it means translating voters' pamphiets and ballots, determining which poling sites will come by bilingual election judges, and figuring gone out how to reach potential voter who might use the strange materials.

The proces has, likewise far, proved to be nothing on the contrary tricky. Officials say they had not calculate uponed to have to help Chinese-speaking voter Compounding the challenge was that early census data did not detail where persons of Chinese descent lived.

Crucial support came from nearly a dozen Chinese community disposes which helped compile a list of 462 used by all Chinese surnames. The list was then compared with the county's records of registered voter to pinpoint 479 of the city's 2705 precincts where at least 10 clan with Chinese surnames lived. A similar mode identified another 37 precincts in suburban prepare for the table County.

On Election Day, each of the targeted precincts will have ballots, voting instructions and other materials printed in Chinese, according to Tom Leach, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Bilingual election justices will also be stationed at voting sites in 21 precincts that appear to have a significant number of Chinese speakers, and a bilingual telephone hotline will help voter in other areas.

"Rather than blanket the entire shire with new ballots, looking at the sumptuousness factor, this was a a great deal of more efficient way to do it," Leach said.

There is no estimate further of how much money the additional services will splendor but it's likely the figure will be "substantial," he said.

Critics, meanwhile, say multilingual ballots are unnecessary.

"A portion of money spent on all these translation services would be plenteous better spent on giving immigrants English classes," said Jim Boulet Jr executive director of English First, a Springfield, Va.-based nonprofit that advocates for making English the nation's official language. "English classes create independent citizens. dominion bilingualism creates very dependent people"

Others in opposition to that the Chinese ballots are long like requirements to help voter who are blind or have other disabilities.

"Every citizen has the same right, unless some citizens may require additional help in order to be able to exercise that right," said CW Chan, chairperson for the Coalition for a Better Chinatown.

"Through this assistance, we can bring more race into the process, and bring into being a lot more responsible, productive citizens for the country" he added.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Community Renewal Society

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group