The Orange County Registrar of Voters stays committed to taking a proactive approach when complying with the language requirements of the Voting Rights Act for every election held in the County. We pride ourselves in maintaining a comprehensive language assistance program in all covered languages. We believe that a successful community outreach program for the language community requires all of the following components:
- The existence of dedicated full time bilingual community program staff: Our bilingual Community Program Specialists coordinate all of the services in voter outreach, election material translation and volunteer recruitment for the language communities. With their community outreach experience and cultural knowledge, they serve as community liaisons for the Registrar of Voters to increase participation among voters who face cultural and language barriers.
- Active and creative community outreach: From media campaigns to targeted events for specific audiences, we have a variety of programs to expand our voter outreach through local channels of communication. These efforts are important in order to raise awareness on voting issues and build on-going relationships with the language based communities we serve.
- Quality control of translation of election materials: Translating complex election materials is a time consuming and complicated task that requires detailed concentration. The process we have instituted ensures translated election materials are accurate, appropriate and accessible.
- Proactive recruitment of bilingual poll workers: The challenge of recruiting qualified bilingual poll workers requires us to take a proactive approach in recruitment. We have developed a wide range of recruitment methods and activities to continuously expand our volunteer database.
In our efforts to comply with the requirements for language assistance as mandated under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, we have been able to provide a variety of bilingual election services to voters who need language assistance. We will continue to respond to the needs of voters and work with language communities to increase voter participation in the democratic process of voting.
For additional assistance in a covered language contact one of our Community Program Specialists for further assistance.