The future election materials in a district in Nevada state in the United States will include Tagalog as one of the featured languages, the Asian Journal said on Wednesday (US time).
According to the Asian Journal report, Harvard Lomax, election registrar of Clark County said “all aspects of the election will now have a Tagalog option including the voting screen, printed ballot, and other materials.”
The announcement came months before the US presidential elections in 2012.
Lomax’s office “reached out to the Filipino community last week” for assistance, after the US Census department told them to incorporate a language option for “the county’s large Filipino population” in future election ballots, it added.
The latest Census showed that Filipinos make up the largest Asian subgroup in Clark County—the largest district in Nevada.
Lomax said this move would be “quite a challenge” for his office because no one in his team knows how to speak, write, or understand Tagalog.
His office is now looking for an Election Operations Specialist who can fluently use both English and Tagalog, he added.
“What we want to do is go out and work with you all to make sure this is a successful program and that we serve you and your community to make sure [that] it will be easier for you to vote,” he said.
The report said Tagalog will be the third language option available for voters in Clark County, the other two being English and Spanish.
Lomax also explained that language assistance during elections is determined by the US Census for counties where more than 10, 000 individuals in an ethnic group—or about five percent of an ethnicity—say that they have difficulty understanding or speaking the English language.
Aside from Clark County, eight other districts across the US will provide an option for Tagalog in future election-related materials:
* Aleutians East Borough (Alaska),
* Aleutians West Census Area (Alaska),
* Honolulu (Hawaii),
* Maui (Hawaii),
* Los Angeles (California),
* San Diego (California),
* Santa Clara (California), and
* Alameda (California.
- VVP, GMA News
source: gmanews.tv
