Malden Seeks Next Step For Bilingual Ballots

MALDEN, MA — From creating bilingual videos to posting on the social media platform WeChat, Malden has taken many steps aimed at making elections more accessible to its Chinese-speaking voters, Mayor Gary Christenson said Wednesday as he asked lawmakers to sign off on another measure with the same goal.

Malden, a Middlesex County city with a population of about 61,000, is among a handful of Massachusetts communities required to print bilingual election materials to serve citizens with limited English proficiency.

Christenson and Rep. Steven Ultrino told the Election Laws Committee that Malden already provides Chinese language ballots, but said there is a hiccup: the candidates' names still appear in English.

"While it isn't a problem for those who speak English or languages that use the Latin alphabet, it's an enormous problem for those who don't, keeping a vital part of the ballot illegal to them and essentially ensuring that their access to the ballot remains theoretical," Ultrino said.

They asked the committee to endorse a home rule petition (H 3828) Ultrino filed, after an 11-0 vote by the city council, that would direct elections officials to transliterate candidates' names into phonetically appropriate Chinese characters on bilingual ballots for Malden elections.

Ultrino asked his colleagues to imagine they'd met "a fantastic candidate for office," heard that person's name many times and planned to vote for them and excitedly headed to the polls only to discover they couldn't recognize the names on the ballot.

Illustrating the point and responding to a question from Rep. Tommy Vitolo, Yu Sin Mok, a Greater Boston Legal Services paralegal and Malden resident, transliterated Ultrino's name. She read the pronunciations aloud in Mandarin and Cantonese and offered to post the characters in the chat function accessible to committee members during the virtual hearing.

"I'll already tell you I can't read it," said Sen. Barry Finegold, who chairs the committee with Rep. Daniel Ryan. "If you want to post it, great, but I can tell you right now I know I can't read it. Point well taken, so thank you."

Lydia Lowe of Chinese Progressive Association Political Action said many Chinese-speaking voters are accustomed to learning about candidates through Chinese-language media, which typically transliterate the names. She said the problem is one that often faces older voters.

"Basic English literacy is required of most naturalized citizens, but there is an important exception in which applicants who are 50 years or older with 20 years or more of legal residence, or 55 years or older with more than 15 years of legal residence in the U.S., they can take their naturalization exam in their native language, and these are the citizens who are most in need of legal ballots and transliteration," she said.

The Legislature in 2014 passed a law calling for Chinese transliteration on Boston ballots.