So many Puerto Ricans live in County Council District 7.  One day on the door knocking trail, every single person the entire day was a Spanish speaker.  It will be such an honor to represent such a diverse district.  Not to mention the food!!

Jennifer Brunner has been fighting to get the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which explicitly requires that bilingual ballots be printed for the Puerto Rican community, specifically.  Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States by virtue of an act of Congress in 1917.  There is no issue here.  They have the right to vote, and the statutory right to be able to read the ballot in their native language.  By law.  Which Jennifer Brunner is seeking to enforce.  I don’t know of any reason for the BOE to drag its heels, other than to allow Bill Mason to demagogue, preen for the cameras, and continue to perpetually burnish his cred among the neanderthal set.

It is very good news that the September 7 county election ballot will be bilingual.  The November ballot should be, too.  As should every other ballot in Cuyahoga County.  As County Councilor for District 7, I plan to make the Board of Elections my little pet issue….being the democracy guy that I am.  And I plan to work with the Puerto Rican community on every issue facing the county, ESPECIALLY on the right to vote, engagement in our democracy, and access to it through enforcement of existing law that guarantees Puerto Ricans a bilingual ballot.

Tags: bilingual ballots, puerto ricans

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.