Bilingual Ballot Speakout at Massachusetts State House

June 24, 2008

Taking their campaign for bilingual ballots forward, the Chinese Progressive Association and the Coalition for Asian American Voting Rights organized a Civil Rights Rally at the Massachusetts State House Monday.

Chinese and Vietnamese elderly, representatives of community organizations, City Councilor Sam Yoon and legislators participated in a speak out against Secretary of State William Galvin's opposition to including candidate names in Chinese characters on the ballot.

The bill presently filed at the State House needs approval of the legislature and the governor in the two months remaining in the formal legislative session. What’s at stake are bilingual ballots for Vietnamese and Chinese and their elderly in particular for this November's election.

"There are so many English names on the ballot, and I get confused," says elderly voter Fook Pui Chan, who hopes to vote in the presidential election. "A ballot that is in Chinese but that doesn't have the candidates' names in Chinese is useless."