Earlier this month, we
posted here about how Maricopa County, Arizona had sent out
Spanish-language instructions with its Voter ID cards that wrongly stated the
election takes place on Nov. 8. In fact,
as the English-language instructions made clear, it’s Nov. 6.
But hey,
anybody can make one mistake.
Except now
the county has made the same mistake again, and once again it involves only
material printed in Spanish.
a
bookmark distributed by the elections department … was passed along to HuffPost
on Tuesday by minority advocacy group Campaign for Community Change. It says, "Register today!
Exercise your right to V-O-T-E!" and goes on to list important dates.
Once again,
the English language bookmarks had the correct date, Nov. 6, while some of the
Spanish language bookmarks said Nov. 8.
The story continues:
Yvonne
Reed, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Department of Elections, told
HuffPost that some of the Spanish-language notices were incorrect because the
department used the election date from last year, but that they are no longer
being distributed.
… BUT
NOTHING IS LOST IN TRANSLATION IN MARYLAND
While
Maricopa County seems to be having an extremely difficult time getting
materials out in Spanish to help people vote, a group in Maryland has had no
trouble at all producing
fliers warning noncitizens that it would be a crime for them to
vote. They warn of possible fines, jail
time, and/or deportation – as if the one thing a noncitizen wants to do most is
call attention to himself by voting illegally.
The group is
supporting a referendum to prevent implementation of Maryland’s DREAM Act, a
law providing in-state tuition to the undocumented immigrant students. The group
had no problem printing its flier in Spanish – and French, Chinese and
Korean.
Perhaps it’s
all a matter of motivation.
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