Voting Rights Act – From Our Corner

WA celebrates 50th anniversary of Voting Rights Act

August 6, 2015 Secretary of State's Office

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act, with Secretary Wyman and the state Elections Division, the state’s 39 county election offices and the National Association of Secretaries of State leading the praise for equal access for voters. “The work of assuring equal access to the ballot never ends. We in Washington are absolutely committed to eliminating barriers and encouraging voter participation of every eligible person in the state. “We encourage our children…

Census: King County to offer elections material in Vietnamese

October 12, 2011 Secretary of State's Office

Our Elections Division received word Wednesday morning from the U.S. Census Bureau on which political jurisdictions in Washington and other states must provide language assistance during elections for groups who are unable to sufficiently speak or understand English to take part in voting. The Census announcement shows that King is the only county in Washington that is impacted by the new Census determinations based on the minority language provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act. King County already is subject…

Elections: Complying with minority languages

July 21, 2011 Secretary of State's Office

If you ever wonder why our state or a certain county provides ballots or elections material in some language besides English, it’s because we’re complying with a federal mandate resulting from the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act were added in 1975. These minority language mandates are found in Section 203 of the VRA. The way it works is that if at least 10,000 (or over 5 percent) of the voting-age citizens…

From Our Corner

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