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For the many non-English speaking residents in Boston who can vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, the city has set up resources to help them through the process.
“We have staffed over 2,000 poll workers to assist on Election Day — I believe 400 of them speak a language other than English,” said Eneida Tavares, Chair of the Boston Election Commission, at an event last weekend.
Multilingual poll workers help with language assistance on site and via phone through the Boston Election department translator phone bank. Voters have access to a language ID card which helps connect them to a translator.
If a specific language isn’t accessible at the polling site, the call center will be notified, according to Gayana Daniel, of the Office of Language and Communications Access.
“It’s important because we have particularly elderly voters who are US citizens whose primary language is not English,” said Dr. Neenah Estrella-Luna, a community advocate. She’s worked with Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE) and said that they’ve seen many instances over the years where elders get ballots in English. “They have a hard time understanding — they may know the candidates, but the names of the offices which are translated can be confusing to them if they’re not actually in the language that they are most comfortable speaking.”
She’s also a poll watcher in East Boston, and says the city has more Spanish-speaking workers at the polls, unlike when she started 15 years ago. “I’ve seen that piece improve significantly,” she said.
The city places the multilingual workers it has in polls according to the area’s demographics.
“If you’re in Mattapan, there’s a very, very good chance that there’s going to be a Haitian Creole speaking person working in the polling location, said Estrella-Luna.
A town or city with over 10,000 residents speaking a language other than English — or more than 5% of voters — must have election materials and ballots translated into that language, according to federal law. Nearly 10 percent of working age residents in MA speak English with limited proficiency, according to a report from MassINC and the UMass Donahue Institute. Nineteen cities and towns across the state offer ballots in languages other than English.
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement is highlighting the city’s voter guide. “That was a big effort to ensure that the multilingual learners have information that they need to really be empowered at the polls,” said executive director Monique Tú Nguyen. “In past elections. we’ve heard that people had a hard time even identifying themselves at the polls or they’ve had issues with communicating directly to the poll workers.”
Multilingual descriptions of ballot questions are online in 11 languages. The ballot itself is available in Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
Incorrect information about noncitizen voters taking part in the federal election is being spread at Trump rallies. Nguyen said it’s “really clear” to immigrants that citizenship is required for federal voting, and anything said otherwise is misinformation.
“We’re having a hard time even getting citizen voters who are immigrants to vote because of this false narrative,” she said. “The problem is the opposite — we’re trying to get more immigrants who are eligible to vote to get to the polls.”
Eny Lovo is a voting advocate with NUBE, which has about 20 people helping Spanish-speakers learn about the voting process in Boston, Everett, Chelsea, Salem, Malden, Somerville, and Revere.
“Thing’s are more inclusive,” she said of the city’s language options. “Much more democratic for our communities.” Lovo recommends improving the voting process for people who can’t see, or can’t read or write in their language.
“We’ve said there’s no worries, we can help you with voting,” she said in a Spanish language interview. The group helps teach people about early and mail-in voting. They’ve registered 50 new voters, over 20 absentee ballots for people who can’t vote, and have overall talked to over 7,500 people about voting. They don’t recommend a specific political candidate, but educate people on what the different ballot questions are and what each side says.
The city is still looking to hire bilingual speakers for the following languages: Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Somali, Russian, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole.
There is a stipend for being a poll worker. But first, they have to go through a two-hour paid training session where they learn about election laws and their Election Day responsibilities. The last Boston poll worker training session is on Sunday.
