LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis and coauthored by Supervisor Janice Hahn to promote equity and inclusivity for non-English speaking (NES) and limited-English proficient (LEP) voters.
With more than half of the population identifying as a person of color, over 30% of the population being foreign-born, and with more than 200 languages spoken—Los Angeles County is truly as diverse as they come. In 2020, 70,000 people, who were registered to vote, responded to a Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk mailer asking if they needed non-English voting materials.
“The 2024 elections are right around the corner, and to that end, we must take the necessary steps to prepare, support, and engage in efforts to promote equity in voter engagement and increase access for all eligible voters,” said Supervisor Solis. “My hope with this motion is to improve the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s engagement with voters across the County through an equity framework – making more vote centers available within ethnic communities and providing linguistic accessibility. Civic engagement can only happen by improving our systems and processes to eliminate barriers. It starts with us.”
“Language barriers should never prevent any Los Angeles County resident from fully participating in our democratic process. With this report, I hope we’ll learn more about which communities need further support and outreach, and exactly how our County departments plan to do that. In my district alone dozens of English-limited communities will benefit from more polling sites, volunteers that can communicate in their first language, but also from more drop boxes that will have instructions in those languages,” said Chair Hahn.
The motion approved today directs the County’s Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RRCC), and the Office of Immigrants Affairs to provide a report to the Board of Supervisors in 45 days on how it will better support NES and LEP voters to increase registration and voting. The motion also authorizes the RR/CC to implement a $100 bonus for all qualifying community and student election workers to support the recruitment and placement of multi-lingual speakers at vote centers during the voting period.
Additionally, the motion directs the RR/CC to use and expand its existing Language Accessibility Advisory Committee to engage and work with impacted communities; recommend culturally appropriate or preferred in-person voting locations in relevant communities with high concentration of NES and LEP voters; and ensure multi-lingual materials contain accurate information and are linguistically correct.
Furthermore, the motion directs the RR/CC to provide a post-election report, following the March 2024 Presidential Primary and November 2024 Presidential elections on how these communities were supported, as well as recommendations for further support for NES and LEP voters.
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