Your Right to a Translated Ballot: Language Access at the Polls

If you're a U.S. citizen who doesn't speak English fluently, you still have the right to vote — and federal law requires election officials to make that possible. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act mandates that covered jurisdictions provide translated ballots, registration forms, instructions, and bilingual poll workers. If your polling place is giving you an English-only ballot in a covered jurisdiction, they're breaking the law.

What Section 203 requires

Section 203 was added to the Voting Rights Act in 1975 after Congress found that language minority citizens had been "effectively excluded from participation in the electoral process." The law is specific: any jurisdiction that provides election materials in English must also provide them in the applicable minority language.

That covers everything from voter registration through casting your ballot:

• Ballots — the actual ballot you fill out must be available in the covered language
• Registration forms and candidate qualifying materials
• Polling place notices, sample ballots, and instructional forms
• Voter information pamphlets and absentee ballot materials
• Oral assistance — bilingual poll workers must be available at the polls to answer questions and help you navigate the process

For Native American languages that historically have no written form, all assistance must be provided orally — meaning bilingual poll workers aren't optional, they're the entire compliance mechanism.

Who is covered

A jurisdiction must provide translated election materials if more than 10,000 voting-age citizens — or more than 5% of all voting-age citizens — are members of a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates, and don't speak English very well.

This applies to county, city, and township governments. Indian reservations have a separate threshold: 5% or more of reservation residents.

As of the most recent Census Bureau determinations (2021), 331 jurisdictions across 30 states are covered — a 26% increase from 2016. The entire states of California, Texas, and Florida are covered. Los Angeles County alone triggers coverage for six distinct language groups, though local law pushes that to 18 languages in practice.

More than 24 million limited-English-proficient voters live in covered jurisdictions.

Covered language groups

Section 203 protects four categories of language minorities that Congress identified as having suffered a history of exclusion from the political process:

1. Spanish speakers
2. Asian language speakers (Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, and others — 21 Asian language groups were eligible in the 2021 determinations)
3. American Indian language speakers (51 language groups eligible)
4. Alaska Native language speakers

The Census Bureau identifies which specific languages apply to which jurisdictions. You can look up whether your county is covered at the DOJ's Section 203 page.

What elections are covered

Section 203 applies to all elections within a covered jurisdiction — primaries, general elections, bond elections, referenda, and elections for municipalities, school districts, and special-purpose districts. If your county is covered, every election held within it must comply.

Does translated material actually help?

Yes — and the data is clear. Research from UCLA's Voting Rights Project found that Latino voter turnout increases roughly 3 percentage points more in Section 203-covered jurisdictions compared to uncovered ones. For Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, the increase is more than 6 percentage points.

Even small outreach efforts produce outsized results. One jurisdiction reported that sending a postcard to all registered voters asking if they wanted their ballot in a covered language increased translated ballot requests more than fivefold.

When jurisdictions don't comply

Compliance has been inconsistent. A comprehensive study found that:

• Fewer than 70% of jurisdictions required to provide Spanish-language assistance were fully compliant
• More than 13% of Spanish-covered jurisdictions provided no language assistance at all
• For Asian language jurisdictions, only about 40% self-reported providing both oral and written assistance
• Fewer than 40% of covered jurisdictions provided phone assistance in all covered languages
• Only 7% provided oral language assistance for voters purged from registration rolls — meaning language-minority voters were being removed from the rolls partly because they couldn't communicate with election officials

These aren't small gaps. They represent millions of eligible voters who may be unable to cast a meaningful ballot because their jurisdiction isn't following the law.

What to do if your rights are violated

If you show up to vote and your polling place doesn't have translated materials, bilingual staff, or any language assistance:

At the polls:

1. Ask to speak to the precinct supervisor or election judge — they may not know the requirements
2. Do not leave without voting. Ask for a provisional ballot if they can't resolve the language assistance issue on the spot
3. Note the time, location, and exactly what was missing — no translated ballot, no bilingual worker, refusal to provide assistance
4. Get the names of any election officials you spoke with

After you leave:

1. Call the DOJ Voting Section at 1-800-253-3931 (toll-free) or 202-307-2767
2. File a complaint with the DOJ Civil Rights Division at civilrights.justice.gov
3. Contact your state's election authority — many states have their own language access requirements that go beyond federal law
4. Document everything — screenshots of English-only materials, written notes about what happened, names of witnesses

You also have the right to bring someone of your choosing to help you at the polls under Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act. That person cannot be your employer or union agent, but they can be a family member, friend, or community member who can assist you in your language.

State laws that go further

Some states exceed Section 203's requirements:

• California requires translated facsimile ballots in precincts where 3% or more of voting-age residents are language minority members — adding 14 languages beyond Section 203's six in Los Angeles County
• New York created a Civic Engagement Commission that provides language assistance in 11 non-English languages at select NYC polling locations
• Oregon (not covered by Section 203) passed a 2021 law requiring the secretary of state to translate voter pamphlets into the five most-spoken non-English languages in the state
• Hawaii requires a digital voter information guide translated into Hawaiian and other common languages
• Virginia (2024) requires its election website to be translated into any language spoken by 5% or 10,000 voting citizens

Check your state's election website — you may have rights beyond what Section 203 provides.

Your right extends beyond the ballot

Section 203 doesn't just cover the ballot itself. Every piece of election information that exists in English must also exist in the covered language:

• Voter registration websites
• Absentee ballot request forms and instructions
• Polling place signage
• Election results and recount notices
• Candidate information and voter guides

If your jurisdiction provides something in English but not in your language, that's a potential violation.

What if you're not in a covered jurisdiction?

You still have rights. Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act allows any voter who needs assistance due to "blindness, disability, or inability to read or write" to bring a person of their choice into the voting booth. Courts have interpreted this to include voters who cannot read or write in English.

Additionally, many states and counties voluntarily provide multilingual election materials even when not required by federal law. Call your local election office before Election Day to ask what's available.

The proposed Expanding the VOTE Act

Congress has introduced the Expanding the VOTE Act (H.R. 4917), which would:

• Clarify that Section 203's requirements cover online materials — not just printed ones
• Affirm that the right to bilingual election materials is an individual right, not just a government obligation
• Establish a voluntary grant program for jurisdictions that want to provide translated ballots beyond the statutory minimum

If passed, this would close some of the compliance gaps that leave millions of voters without the language assistance they're entitled to.

Document it before you forget

If this happened to you, the deadline clock is already running. IronRecord lets you document the incident now — timestamped, with evidence attached — and calculates your filing deadline automatically. Free to start, no lawyer required.

Start your free record at ironrecord.org/dashboard

When you're ready, you can share your full documented record with a civil-rights attorney in one click.

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This article provides general legal information, not legal advice. Voting rights laws vary by jurisdiction. If you believe your voting rights have been violated, contact the DOJ Voting Section at 1-800-253-3931 or consult a civil-rights attorney in your state.