How does the government help non-English speakers vote?

Under the Voting Rights Act, thirty states are required to provide non-English voting materials in at least one locality.

Updated on Thu, August 1, 2024 by the USAFacts Team

About 8.4% of the US speaks English less than “very well,” according to the Census Bureau in 2022. For otherwise-eligible voters, a lack of English proficiency can present a challenge to participating in the electoral process.

In 1975, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act increased voting access for non-English speakers who had historically been excluded from the political process, with a focus on Spanish, Asian, Native American, and Alaskan Native language-speakers — but with particular requirements that mean that not every locality is required to comply.

Thirty states are required to provide non-English voting materials in at least one locality. Of the 20 states not required to do so, Oregon and North Carolina had the highest proportions of residents who spoke English “less than very well” at 5.5% and 4.8%, respectively, and Washington, DC, had a rate of 5.1%. West Virginia (0.8%) and Montana (1.1%) had the lowest proportions of residents who spoke English “less than very well.”

Who is covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act?

Section 203 covers localities that meet two criteria:

• More than 10,000 or over 5% of voting-age citizens in the state, county, or municipality must be “members of a single language minority group” with limited English proficiency. When the 5% criterion is met, ballots and election information must be made available in the second language state-wide: if 5.8% of a state’s population are Spanish speakers with limited English proficiency, all elections in the state must support Spanish, even in individual counties and cities that don’t meet the 5% threshold. The statewide coverage is only triggered by the 5% criteria; the 10,000-person threshold only mandates local second-language support.
• The language minority must have depressed literacy rates. A “depressed literacy rate” means that a percentage of the language minority’s voting-age citizens with a fifth-grade education is lower than the national share.

These determinations use Census population data for Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Asian race and ethnicity groups. In other words, race and ethnicity data, in addition to response data from the American Community Survey, determines language access.

This can create gaps: Immigrants from North Africa who primarily speak Arabic and are marked “white” on the Census or Haitian immigrants who primarily speak Creole and are marked “African American” on the Census would not be covered.

The Biden administration approved changes to the Census in March 2024 that will add a “Middle Eastern or North African” option, but this new race/ethnicity category will not necessarily extend to language assistance provisions under Section 203 unless people choosing this new category also belong to a specified language minority group.

The most common groups covered under Section 203 are:

• Hispanic
• Chinese (including Taiwanese)
• Vietnamese
• Choctaw
• Navajo
• Filipino

Counties or minor civil divisions (MCDs) [1] in thirty states require that ballots be translated into a language other than English, with Hispanic language-minority counties being the most-covered under Section 203.