For the first time, ballots in Queens will be translated into Bengali, reports the Indian Express
The move comes after pressure from the South Asian community and two years after the federal government ordered the city to provide language assistance to South Asians under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“The Board’s bureaucratic foot-dragging has prevented many Bengali-speaking Americans with limited English proficiency from being able to fully exercise their right to vote,” said Seema Agnani, executive director of the Chhaya Community Development Corporation which joined a lawsuit over this issue.
The recent Supreme Court decision throwing out major portions of the Voting Rights Act did not impact the part requiring bilingual assistance.
