JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES VOTING RIGHTS ACT AGREEMENT
WITH SAN DIEGO COUNTY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has entered into a settlement agreement with San Diego County, California designed to protect the voting rights of minority language voters.

Federal law requires that jurisdictions with a substantial minority-language voter population, as determined by the Census Bureau, provide certain voting materials in that language. Under the agreement, the county will provide voting materials, such as ballots and other information, in Spanish, Tagalog (the language of many Filipino Americans), and Vietnamese.

“Every citizen has a right to vote, regardless of what language they speak,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Today’s agreement removes a procedural impediment to voting which hindered significant numbers of language minority citizens from exercising that right.”

"The County of San Diego will now be providing the assistance necessary to ensure equal access to the polls for Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese speakers,” said Carol C. Lam, United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. “The County should be congratulated for resolving this issue quickly and in a constructive manner.”

As part of the agreement, the county also agreed to a court order allowing federal observers to monitor Election Day activities in its polling places. The Civil Rights Division will share information gathered by the observers with county officials to aid compliance with the agreement and with federal law. This portion of the agreement must be approved by a three-judge federal panel.

The Civil Rights Division has launched a major initiative to ensure the compliance by each jurisdiction covered under the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Since January 2004, the Division has announced agreements protecting Spanish-speaking voters in San Benito County, CA, Vietnamese-speaking voters in Harris County (Houston), Texas, and Navajo and Pueblo voters in Cibola and Socorro Counties, New Mexico.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931. More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.

###

04-436