Tagalog heard in Nevada election

GMA Network in the Philippines this week reported that Nevada ballots in Tagalog were being used.

Tagalog is a language used by about a third of the population of the Philippines. A more standard form of Tagalog, called Filipino, is the leading language in that nation.

U.S. Embassy political officer David Sequeira mentioned Nevada in making the point that the votes of U.S. citizens of Philippine descent are becoming more important.

“Right now there are about 700,000 Filipino-American voters [in the U.S.],” he said.“Nevada has 100,000 Fil-Ams living there currently. Certainly a large number of them can vote.”

Efforts to contact Sequeira were unsuccessful.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller confirmed the accuracy of the report as far as it goes. But ballots in Tagalog are available only in counties where the population of Tagalog is above 5 percent, which means Clark County, where the Asian vote is a significant bloc.

Sequeire also told GMA (Greater Manila Area), “It is the decision of every state on what they want to do with their ballots, and Nevada made this decision.”

Actually, it is not the states’ decision. The ballots in languages spoken by more than 5 percent of the population are required by the U.S. Voting Rights Act. States have no discretion in the matter, according to Nevada deputy secretary of state for elections Scott Gilles.

“Publishing election materials in multiple languages is not a state or county mandate,” he said in an email message. “The Voting Rights Act mandates the language requirements based on certain thresholds having been met following the 2010 census. Based on the census data, the Department of Justice directs which languages election materials must be made available in for each county. The DOJ directed that Clark County must provide election materials in Spanish and Tagalog.”