Marietta Daily Journal
December 8, 2016

Anthony White

Foreign language ballots may be coming soon

Cobb’s Hispanic voting population has nearly doubled since 2008 and now accounts for 3.8 percent of the county’s registered voters. If these numbers continue to grow, Cobb may find itself, like Gwinnett County, mandated to provide Spanish-language ballots and other materials to voters who may not speak and read English well.

Gwinnett County became the only Georgia county required to provide bilingual voting ballots and materials to its Hispanic voters by a U.S. Census Bureau designation released Monday. Under the designation, established by Section 203 of the Federal Voting Rights Act, counties with a minority voting population of more than 10,000 or greater than 5 percent that speak a single, non-English language must accommodate those voters by providing ballots and voting material in that population group’s language.

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said the designation is important because “more Latino voters will have equal access to be able to exercise their right to vote without having English language proficiency as a barrier.”

Gwinnett is the first Georgia county to receive this designation, but “other counties, like Cobb, Hall and Whitfield counties, are likely next,” Gonzalez said.

Janine Eveler, director of the Cobb Board of Elections, said she is aware of the designation, but isn’t sure if Cobb will be impacted anytime soon.

“My understanding is that the designations are made every five years,” Eveler said. “There’s no way to know where Cobb’s demographics will be at that time.”

Cobb does not provide Spanish-language or bilingual ballots.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State, in November 2016, there were 26,940 Hispanic voters registered in Gwinnett County, which accounted for 6.2 percent of the county’s 431,727 registered voters. Gwinnett’s total Latino population is estimated at 171,000 or 20.3 percent of the county’s total population, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.

By contrast, in November 2016, there were 16,428 registered Hispanic voters in Cobb which accounted for 3.8 percent of Cobb’s 423,890 registered voters. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Cobb’s estimated 89,000 Hispanics or Latinos make up 12.5 percent of the Cobb’s total population.

Gonzalez said it would be premature to comment on the impact of the Latino vote in Gwinnett or Cobb County, but “Latino voters across the state of Georgia were turning out in large numbers as we have not seen before.”

Gonzalez also pointed out that “nationally only 19 percent of Latinos voted for Donald Trump, a historical low number for the GOP nominee.”

Although Cobb is not required to provide bilingual ballots under the U.S. Census designation, there are other provisions in the Voting Rights Act that may require the county to begin issuing Spanish-language ballots, Gonzalez said.

“People born and educated on the island of Puerto Rico are entitled to have access to Spanish language protections for voting as well and there are no numerical requirements,” he said.

According to Gonzalez, several counties in Georgia have Puerto Rican populations and those counties may be out of compliance with the Voting Rights Act by not providing bilingual ballots and other materials to Puerto Rican voters.

Eveler said she was not aware of this provision in the Voting Rights Act.  HERE