Gwinnett Should Offer Ballots in Spanish, Advocates Say

Georgia’s organization representing Latino elected officials is calling on Gwinnett County to make Spanish-language ballots available before next year’s presidential election.

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, has written to Gwinnett and Hall counties -- both of which have significant Hispanic populations -- saying election officials are legally required to provide ballots in Spanish if voters want them.

“We have had to provide, at our own expense, language access to voters. However, it is the county’s responsibility to do that,” Gonzalez said to WABE 90.1.

GALEO points to language in the Voting Rights Act that guarantees access to Spanish-language ballots for Puerto Ricans. There are more than 13,000 people who identify as Puerto Rican living in Gwinnett County, according to 2013 Census figures.

Gwinnett’s chairwoman of the Board of Voter Registration, Alice O’Lenick, said that her office has been working with community organizations and churches to insure voting access to non-English speakers. She told WABE her office will send ballots to groups that can translate it for those in need.

She said that, to her knowledge, federal and state regulations only require languages other than English to be used on voting materials when the non-English-speaking population passes a threshold that Gwinnett has not hit.

She said she was unaware of the provision for Puerto Rican voters.

“It’s nice to have letters come into the board of something we weren’t thinking of or something that we have not made decisions on before,” O’Lenick said to WABE.

She said Gwinnett’s lawyers will look into the issue, according to the station.