TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local Florida is calling on Seminole County election officials to offer voting materials in Spanish. In a letter to Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson, All Voting is Local Florida Campaign Manager Ricardo Negron-Almodovar requested a list of issues be fixed so Spanish-dominant voters have access to all electoral information, as guaranteed by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.
The law mandates that designated jurisdictions must provide voting materials — like registration forms and voting assistance — in different languages.
Some of the issues reported in the 2020 general election that disproportionately affected Spanish-language voters were:
- Bilingual poll workers could not be identified by their badges.
- Spanish language signage was significantly smaller and harder to read than English signage.
- The county election website, www.voteseminole.org, contains buttons that do not translate with site translation options.
- Spanish text in materials available on the Supervisor of Elections’ website was significantly smaller and harder to read than English text.
“During the 2020 General Elections, election protection volunteers flagged issues that particularly affected Spanish-dominant voters in Seminole County,” Negron-Almodovar wrote in the letter. “If these problems continue going forward, we will see Spanish-language voters face disproportionate challenges at the polls.”
The full letter can be found here.