Alaska elections office ordered to expand language assistance
By Steve Quinn JUNEAU Alaska (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered Alaska election officials to go further in offering translation assistance to native-language voters in a ruling that one civil rights lawyer said on Tuesday may have implications for non-English speakers in other states. The decision, issued on Monday, gives the state the six weeks that remain before the Nov. 4 elections to comply with a list of remedies designed to accommodate Yup'ik- and Giwch'in-speaking voters in several rural Alaska Native villages. The eight-page order by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason essentially puts into effect a ruling from early September in which she declared that the Alaska Division of Elections had violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. It stems from a lawsuit claiming the state failed to provide voters of limited English proficiency with clear and accurate information explaining a ballot that will include races for governor, U.S. House of Representatives and Senate seats, and various initiatives. Under Gleason's order, the state must now provide oral and written translations of election materials; public service announcements alerting voters of available translation assistance; posters advertising such assistance; election worker training; translated copies of the official election pamphlet; and a comprehensive report on compliance no later than Nov. 28. Natalie Landreth, an Anchorage-based attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which brought the case on behalf of the Alaska villages, said the judge's order would likely serve as a legal precedent in similar cases elsewhere. "She is setting the only enforceable legal standard on this issue," Landreth told Reuters. "This helps Hispanics, Asians and especially native-language voters in the Southwest and the Dakotas." A spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law said the state was "committed to doing everything it can to implement the court’s order and provide robust language assistance." "With the clear guidance from the court, we look forward to providing the additional assistance outlined by Judge Gleason to the best of our ability to enhance the state’s existing language assistance program,” she added. Landreth said Alaska's Election Division, under the Republican leadership of Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell, whose office oversees the agency, was the first jurisdiction anywhere in the country since 1980 willing to fight such a lawsuit all the way to trial. (Reporting by Steve Quinn; Editing by Steve Gorman and Eric Beech)
