English-only ballots -- for now
BRITTNEY BOOTH
Daytona news-journalonline.com
Aug 22, 2006
As he prepares Cuban sandwiches and pastries, Mario Flores converses in Spanish with coworkers at Elsie's Bakery.
But the 30-year-old Honduran immigrant, who expects to become a citizen in 2007, is looking forward to participating in the political process -- in English. "We have to adapt," he said, in Spanish. "The elections are in English, we have to force ourselves to learn."
By the time Flores is eligible to vote, he will have the option to cast a ballot in Spanish as the Volusia County Elections Department plans to offer a Spanish ballot in 2008. But in this year's elections, a September primary and November general election, voters will only have access to English ballots.
Elections Supervisor Ann McFall had planned to provide Spanish ballots this year, but the department obtained new touch-screen voting machines that included an audio ballot for the disabled. The office did not have time to print ballots in Spanish and hire an outside company to provide the translation for the audio ballot, McFall said.
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