Yup'ik voters want help at polls

[Blue_In_AK]

http://www.adn.com/western_alaska/story/397303.html

JUNEAU -- Residents of Bethel and five Kuskokwim River villages are asking a federal court to order more effective elections assistance for Yup'ik-speaking voters. The Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed for a preliminary injunction on behalf of the plaintiffs in an Anchorage district court on Monday.

They are asking state and local elections officials to ensure that bilingual staff are available at the polls to assist voters and translate ballots and elections materials into Yup'ik for the August primary. They say efforts to provide language assistance so far have been lacking.

They say many polling places often have no one available to help Native speakers and very little quality control over the assistance that is provided.

For example, they cite a 2002 ballot measure regarding the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority where references to natural gas were translated as "this gas in the stomach."

"Election officials expect Yup'ik voters to understand translations which are incomprehensible, inaccurate, confusing, and cause them to vote the wrong way," said fund attorney Natalie Landreth in a news release.

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Alaska is covered by a special section of the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Those provisions apply to areas that meet certain threshold requirements for numbers of residents with limited English proficiency.