General elections are fast approaching in the United States. There are plenty of implications for the language services industry who operate or do business in Uncle Sam’s backyard, which — unlike most countries throughout the world — claims no official language. Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act requires that bilingual ballots, bilingual voter registration forms, interpreters, and other language assistance programs be provided for languages that are spoken by 5% or more of the population. The law protects the integrity of the elections process and prevents against disenfranchising individuals with limited English proficiency. That act reflected the broad attention brought to minority rights by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Section 203 requires several things specific to language services:

• Bilingual ballots. The City of Boston is printing transliterated candidate names on ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese for the 2008 elections. Los Angeles, the most diverse jurisdiction in the United States, prints ballots in 7  languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog,Vietnamese, and English.
• Multilingual voter registration. As of 2008, New Jersey makes voter registration forms available in Gujarati and several other South Asian languages. The State of California offers voter registration support in an array of languages.
• In-language assistance. Elections officials are required to provide in-language support throughout each step of the voting process. When available, bilingual staff are on hand to speak to voters directly in their native tongues.
• Interpreters at polling places. When bilingual staff are not available, interpreters fill in the language gap. Even mock elections — practice sessions that teach newbie voters how to cast their ballots — are already offering interpreters. For example, voters at a mock election in St. Paul this week will have access to interpreters for two of the most common languages spoken in the area — Spanish and Hmong.

And what happens when elections officials fail to comply with federal law? The Department of Justice gets angry — and you don’t want to see it when it’s angry.

Or, maybe you do. If so, check out the scores of litigation brought by the department’s voting section, which falls under its civil rights division. Repeat offenders Texas, New Mexico, and California seem to still be in denial about their status as majority-minority states.

Still missing on the menu of U.S. language assistance for voting? Folks at polling places who can explain terms like “hanging chad” and “butterfly ballot“– even for people who are fully proficient in English.