Weld County, Colorado, had a population of 27% Spanish-speakers according to 2006 data. The figure is now greater than 27%. According to federal law, any county with more than 5% Spanish-speakers must provide instructions for non-English speakers.
The county clerk decided to go according to a census from the year 2000 when fewer than 5% of the population was Spanish-speaking.
Therefore, many Spanish-speakers left without voting because there was no way for them to understand the process or answer their questions.
Here is the piece from today's NYTimes.
Colorado: English Only
2 p.m.: In Weld County, there were reports of Hispanic voters leaving polling places without voting because voter information, including ballots, had not been translated into Spanish.
Lindsey Hodel, organizing director with the Colorado Progressive Coalition, said the county had run out of bilingual voter registration information three weeks ago and that there were interpreters at only five of eleven voting centers.
As a result, she said Hispanic voters had to wait for family members to show up to help translate.
“This could potentially affect thousands of voters here,” she said.
Steve Moreno, the Weld County clerk, said he had not heard those reports. He said federal election law dictates that counties with a Hispanic population greater than five percent translate their ballots into Spanish.
Mr. Moreno conceded that Weld County currently exceeds that threshold—the county’s Hispanic population was at 27 percent in 2006 according to federal data. But Mr. Moreno said he made his decision not to translate ballots based on the 2000 census.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...