California’s Polyglot Ballot Ruling Increases Likelihood of More Voter Fraud

“Election materials in 2020 will be available in 14 Asian languages for limited-English proficient voters,” reports Theodora Yu in the Sacramento Bee.

The reason so many languages will be accommodated is that the California Appeal Court ruled that Secretary of State Alex Padilla had “improperly” used a higher-percentage threshold of voting-age citizens to determine which languages receive services, therefore depriving those entitled to access under state law. The languages now covered are: Bengali, Burmese, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Lao, Mien, Mongolian, Nepali, Tamil, Thai, Telugu, and Urdu.

The court’s polyglot legal ruling came in response to a lawsuit by the ACLU, the Asian Law Caucus, and the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. And it raises a concern or two. 

Back in 1986, a full 73.2 percent of voters established English as California’s official language through Proposition 63. That landslide vote means that the measure was tripartisan, with Republicans, Democrats, and independents in favor. By this measure, there should only be one language on the ballot, English, and that language comes into play in a different way.

As this writer can attest, legal immigrants to the United States must show facility in the English language. When this writer held a Green Card, he was prohibited from voting, a privilege reserved for full American citizens. The deployment of a ballot in 14 languages raises the question of ineligible voters, but it’s not the only reason for that concern.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla is a champion of the “motor voter” program that deploys the DMV, incompetent at its appointed tasks, as a registrar of voters for all those who receive driver’s licenses. Padilla claims voter fraud never happens, but after the 2016 election he declined to participate in a federal probe of voter fraud. For 2018, more than a million “new” voters were on the rolls, but Padilla won’t say if any ineligibles did in fact vote. As it happens, false-documented ineligibles have been voting in federal, state and local elections for decades. 

In a state where polling places bear signs reading “No ID Required,” the addition of 14 languages to the ballot could easily empower more voter fraud. Voting is reserved for citizens, and citizens are supposed to have facility in English, California’s official language by the vote of the people.

Identity fraud and voter fraud are not victimless crimes, and anybody who looks the other way has no claim to support the rule of law. Those still on the fence need to pick a team.