[OC] US counties required to provide non-English ballots under the Voting Rights Act, by number of languagesYarmouk t1_it5o3td wrote
Find it interesting the couple folks complaining about non-English ballots trying to make it an immigration thing, as if indigenous languages don’t exist. People have many perfectly valid reasons for desiring a non-English ballot, and trying to decry that as unamerican is hilarious and stupid
marriedacarrot t1_it68cyj wrote
Anyone claiming cultural diversity is unamerican is a bona fide dummy.
zeruch t1_it60yr1 wrote
They also wouldn't likely complain if it was counties in the upper midwest making Swedish or German ballots.
Alyxra t1_it7wf2c wrote
Lol bullshit, Americans were notoriously anti-Irish, anti-Italian, anti-German, anti-anything:
Most German immigrants all Americanized their names when entering the country to avoid being ostracized
zeruch t1_ithpw4v wrote
If we were still in the 1800s, sure. But now? Dollars to donuts, I doubt it.
"Most German immigrants all Americanized their names "
Re-read that. Besides being poorly written, it's also inaccurate. There were period where anglicization was more common, but rarely anywhere near "all". Frankly, it was in cases often for practicality (because Americans can't pronounce anything "weird" which is why for Portuguese, Martin (Mar-teen) became Martin (Mahr-tin), Silveira became Silver, and almost any other "ei" centered surname (Pereira, Ferreira, etc) got given a soft-E instead of a long-A sound. For German, the double-S letter (ß) was dealt away with wholesale, and pronunciations often stayed intact while spelling shifted for practicality (e.g. Bauer became Bower) but hardly hid anything from view.
Also, anglicizing of names is common in the US and England, but historically it was often forced rather than chosen (that doesn't change the anti-immigrant underpinning, but does change the method).
This topic is a lot more complex than you rebutted., and it's one I have a big pet interest in, but I suspect that's not the point you were trying to make (albeit very clumsily). My first sentence still stands. And as for "Americans were notoriously anti-Irish, anti-Italian, anti-German, anti-anything" you've just described almost every spot of humanity on the planet (really, find me a single society anywhere in history, anywhere on the planet that at one time or all didn't have or contrive a convenient "other" to lambaste). But what do I know, I'm just a misanthrope on the internet.
katycake t1_it6anez wrote
What's the point in a non English ballot when the politicians only speak English anyways? Are these people even aware of what they are voting for?
Yarmouk t1_it6ykrk wrote
I have no idea why you think politicians “only speak English anyways”, but that’s a thing you made up so not really relevant here. As to your question of voter awareness, you’ve hit on the exact reason that ballots are translated, so that they can engage in voting in a language they’re most comfortable in, allowing them to make the informed decisions so vital to democracy
souryellow310 t1_it7t8kb wrote
Many immigrant communities have local radio or TV stations in their native languages. There's also friends, family, social groups that discuss what they are voting for. In LA county, the supplemental material with the text of the ballot measures and candidate statements are translated into many languages. I have family members who can't read or write well in English but they are more informed of politics than most Americans.
HoAdanac t1_itdgq0n wrote
How many native americans don't speak english? I always thought pretty much all of them did, especially these days. It'd be a waste of money to print ballots in languages that are superfluous to being able to understand the ballot itself.
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