I was listening to the radio earlier this week and I heard a very interesting proposition being tossed around in the Seattle legislature (or was it the state legislature?). In any case, some folks are advocating the use of multiple languages for ballots on elections and propositions, and the radio commentator made a good point: in order to attain citizenship in the USA, one must command a proficient enough English in order to do basic reading comprehension and writing tasks. Isn’t it then contradictory to have official ballots written in other languages, for isn’t it presupposed that those voting are at least proficient in English?
Good (and bad) points were made for each side by random callers, but I want to know what you guys (who strike me as somewhat more intelligent than the a-ve-rage bear) think.
First of all, is this true? I suppose the second question is should this be true?
As far as putting propositions in multiple languages, hell, I never could comprehend the English versions. By the time the language of a proposition is summarized to fit on a ballot, it has been reduced to bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. Often if you want to vote for the proposition, you have to vote no on the ballot. So they can print 'em up in Greek for all I care. If you haven’t done your homework on propositions before going into the voting booth you’re not going to know what you’re voting on anyway.
I suppose this was more of a lame rant that a legitimate response. Sorry.
This topic was accidentally started more than once, so I’ll close this copy and direct further comment to another, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132237