Dearborn City is now making Arabic-language ballots available on its website and saying it will offer them at polling stations next week on pre-election day.
The move comes after complaints from Arab-American supporters about the lack of ballot papers and a report by the Free Press on July 19. On July 21st, the city published the Arabic-language ballot on its website. Dearborn Secretary George Darany said the city had planned to publish the ballot.
Civil rights activists say the lack of voting material for Arab-Americans and how to contact them has resulted in lower voter turnout in the eastern part of the city, which is Arab-majority and generally has lower incomes.
On July 15, only 19% of the 7,137 Dearborn voters who applied for ballots were from the east of the city, compared with 81% from the west of the city. Registered voters in the eastern part make up 45% of the city’s voters.
Dearborn is approximately 47% Arab-American based on 2019 census data. The city previously had voter registration and application information in Arabic on its website, but no voting slip.
Abed Ayoub, Legal and Political Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which asked the city to provide the ballot papers, praised the reception of the ballot papers. But he said more had to be done. Ayoub and others said the city must have Arabic language websites, as the city of Miami has for Spanish and Haitian Creole.
“We remind the clerk and the city once again that they have a duty and responsibility to all Dearborn residents,” said Ayoub. “We expect more from the secretary’s office to make ballot boxes and information more accessible across the city. A simple follow-up for the clerk is to translate the voting information on the website into Arabic and take a more proactive approach to engaging with our community. “
This year’s primaries on August 3 and the elections in November are one of the most momentous in Dearborn in decades: For the first time in 35 years, an incumbent mayor has not been on the ballot. Seven candidates are running to succeed Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly Jr., who announced in January that this will be his final term.
Darany told the Free Press on Monday that in addition to the ballot papers on its website, “the Arabic sample ballots will be available in constituencies on election day in August and November.”
Darany explained why there was a delay in the delivery of the ballot papers.
More:Arabic-American supporters ask Dearborn for Arabic-language voting aid, ballot ball
More:Hamtramck agrees to provide ballot papers in Bengali and election support
In November 2020, “Dearborn City Office provided sample ballots in Arabic for the presidential election,” Darany said in an email. “They were available on the city’s website and in all election day elections. The only negative was that the State of Michigan made them and promised that the sample ballots would be available in early October. We only got them 3 days earlier.” The vote.”
Darany said he was trying to fix the problem for this year’s election.
“This year I thought I would get on the Arabic sample ballots early and started calling companies in early June,” he said. “We received the sample last week and posted it on the website on Wednesday, which is much faster than last November, but not as fast as I had hoped. We will try to make it available for the November elections in early October put.”
In Hamtramck, which is roughly 50% Arab-American and Bangladeshi-American, the city recently passed an approving decree to provide voters with Bengali ballot papers for those with limited English language skills.
The settlement came after a lawsuit by an Asian-American group alleging the city violated Section 203 of federal electoral law by not helping American voters in Bangladesh.
But the US government does not classify Arab Americans as a minority group who are discriminated against in voting so they do not qualify for federal aid.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: [email protected] or Twitter @nwarikoo
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