Late last month, the Trump istration dismissed all cases in which the U.S. Department of Justice sought to enforce the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and removed all the senior attorneys directing the Justice Department’s voting rights work. The Voting Rights Act, perhaps the single most effective civil rights law this country has ever ed, has been rigorously enforced under Democratic and Republican presidents. Until now.
The story of a bipartisan consensus around the importance of voting rights enforcement actually touches the ground here in San Diego County; it is a central but largely unknown part of our voting rights history. San Diego County is a shining example of why federal voting rights enforcement matters. And an example of the critical importance of a little-known law celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, for ensuring equal access for limited-English speaking voters.
When the Voting Rights Act was updated in 1975, and signed by President Gerald Ford, it included something called Section 203, which specifies that counties are to provide translated materials and bilingual poll workers for any language community with 10,000 limited-English proficient voting age citizens. In San Diego County, the Spanish-speaking Latino community in San Diego should have been covered in 1992 and the Tagalog-speaking Filipino community in 2002.
Yet in 2004, San Diego County was not complying with the requirements of the law. Under President George W. Bush, a nationwide enforcement push led the Justice Department to file a complaint against the county. An agreement was reached mandating that the elections office would: provide all voting materials in Spanish and Tagalog, increase the number of bilingual poll workers, create language advisory groups composed of community and organizations, train staff and poll workers on language access, and hire a Spanish coordinator and Tagalog coordinator.
All of these advances remain in place in San Diego County today, but no one thinks twice about them. Few are even aware that it required the threat of a federal lawsuit to establish them in the first place.
Something unexpected happened in that Justice Department enforcement action. There were 9,915 limited-English speaking Viet folks who were U.S. citizens in the county at the time; had there been just 85 more, all the same requirements that applied for Spanish and Tagalog would have also applied for Vietnamese. The Justice Department and San Diego County entered into a binding agreement that the county would voluntarily offer all the same translated materials and services in Vietnamese.
The increased access guaranteed by Section 203 made a huge difference. At a 2005 congressional hearing, a Justice Department representative said, “In San Diego County, Spanish and Filipino registrations are up over 21%, and Vietnamese registration is up over 37% since the division’s enforcement action.”
Nevertheless, voting is by no means easy for my limited-English speaking Viet community . My organization, Viet Voices, recognizes having translated ballots and bilingual poll workers who are culturally sensitive to our community is the minimum that we all can do for this community. Language access is critically important, but barriers can still prevent our community from participating in the elections.
For example, in the recent election, I personally drove Vietnamese elders to vote; many didn’t know how to read Vietnamese. One woman shared her story of growing up selling cigarettes on the sidewalk outside the school while waiting for her siblings to finish classes. The ballot was long; it took time for me to read the ballot aloud for these elders so they could cast their votes.
Democracy cannot leave anyone behind. The improvement of the election process in San Diego County to serve our Vietnamese community is because of a 50-year-old bipartisan commitment this country made to immigrant inclusion in our democracy, and a 20-year-old bipartisan fight to uphold the law.
As the Trump istration acts to purge the voting rights attorneys from the Justice Department, it has removed the mechanism to enforce Section 203 and to ensure elections are accessible for our immigrant communities. Our story in San Diego should be an inspiration — we must hold strong to our belief that our democracy is stronger when it hears all voices, in all languages.
Tran is executive director at Viet Voices and lives in North Park.
