EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Eugene Lee
Organization : | Asian Pacific American Legal Ctr. of So. CA
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | Dear Commissioners: On behalf of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) and its national affiliate the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), we submit our organizations’ joint comments to the proposed Voluntary Voting System Guidelines released by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on June 27, 2005. APALC is the leading organization in Southern California dedicated to providing legal services to Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities and to advocating for API civil rights. NAPALC is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Americans through advocacy, public policy, public education, and litigation. APALC and NAPALC provide technical assistance across the nation. APALC and NAPALC work together towards policies and practices that ensure eligible API and other voters can exercise the right to vote. Our experience conducting voter outreach and education and coordinating poll monitoring efforts has given us insight into the multiple barriers APIs face in casting their ballots. Among others, these barriers include lack of English language proficiency, cultural barriers, and racial discrimination. APALC and NAPALC are well-known for their advocacy on behalf of language minority voters who are not yet fully proficient in English. In California, APALC has been recognized for its expertise on the implementation of various provisions of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) and was appointed by the California Secretary of State to serve on the HAVA State Plan Advisory Committee to assist with the development of California’s State Plan for complying with HAVA. In the area of voting systems, we have advocated for voting technology that is accessible to all voters, including language minority voters who are not yet fully proficient in English. APALC has examined and is familiar with a number of prototype voting systems and has appeared before the Secretary of State’s Voting Systems and Procedures Panel to provide testimony.