Asian and Latino Voters Win Rights in DOJ Suit Settlement

9/18/05
Thanks to MassVote

After weeks of negotiations, the City of Boston settled the lawsuit brought against it by the Department of Justice (DOJ). After months of investigations, the DOJ filed suit at the end of July alleging that Boston violated the voting rights of Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese voters. The city vowed to fight to the end, but settled the suit last week.

One day earlier, three community organizations and four voters petitioned the U.S. District Court to join the suit as plaintiffs. The groups -- the Chinese Progressive Association, Chinatown Resident Association and City Life/Vida Urbana -- told the Boston Globe that they were looking to assure community representation when and if the case was settled and remedies were devised.

The settlement provided for provided for federal monitoring of city elections, bilingual ballots and election material, larger numbers of bilingual election personnel, and a city elections language officer. The full implementation of these reforms will be phased in beginning with the 2005 election. The languages provided for include Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese.