Fresh fight over bilingual ballots

Council to pursue state law ordering names in Chinese

Boston's City Council is poised to call on state lawmakers today to pass a special law mandating that all candidates' names be translated into Chinese for upcoming elections in the city, setting up a fresh confrontation with Secretary of State William F. Galvin.

Last year Boston started printing the names in Chinese characters on the ballots for the first time, drawing opposition from Galvin, the state's top elections official, because of the potential that the names could mean something else entirely. But Chinese-American voters say the translations are rarely misunderstood and help elderly voters who struggle with English.

Hundreds of voters poured into a hearing last week to urge councilors to pass a home-rule petition calling for the law. Yesterday, at least eight of the 13 councilors, including the president, Maureen Feeney, said they would vote in favor of the petition.

The measure seeks to preserve the gains Asian-American voters have made after a 2005 settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice, which had sued Boston over alleged voting rights violations. That agreement, which expires this year, requires Boston to provide bilingual ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese, as well as other measures. Boston started printing the ballots in areas with high numbers of Chinese and Vietnamese residents. Last year, city officials decided to "transliterate" candidates' names on the ballots into Chinese characters.

The City Council now wants the names on state and federal ballots to be transliterated into Chinese as well.

"It's just a very basic right," said Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, which is pushing the vote. "Why wouldn't you want to make it possible for citizens to vote?"

The push for bilingual ballots rose from concerns that voters could not understand ballots and that some poll workers in Chinatown were telling voters which candidate to choose.

While Galvin supports bilingual ballots and the state has provided them in Boston for state and federal elections, he opposes using Chinese characters for candidates' names. He said the translations do not always reflect the person's name and at worse could have a negative connotation.

As examples, Galvin said, Mitt Romney's name could have been confused in Chinese characters with "sticky rice" on the ballot; Mayor Thomas M. Menino could be "imbecile."

Yesterday, Galvin said he opposed the council's petition. "It isn't out of belligerence that we're saying no we won't do it," he said. "It adds uncertainty and potential disputes into the process."

Galvin said the 2005 agreement did not require names in Chinese, and a federal court supported his contention.

Even Boston's top election official, Geraldine Cuddyer, questioned the timing of the council's push, saying it would be overwhelming to translate all candidates' names into Chinese for the November elections. She said Boston would continue to publish bilingual ballots - and Chinese names - for city elections after the consent decree expires.

"I liken this to changing the rules of the game in the third quarter," said Cuddyer, who chairs the city's Board of Election Commissioners.

But advocates, voters, and city councilors said translating names is crucial to helping hundreds, if not thousands, of voters. Candidates can approve the final version of their names, many of which are already well-known because their Chinese names appear in the Chinese newspapers.

Without the protection of the law, advocates worry that the gains Asian-Americans made since the 2005 agreement will slip away once it expires this year.

"It's a voting right that deserves and needs the protection of law so it can survive future mayors and it can survive future secretaries of state," said Councilor at large Sam Yoon, the main sponsor of the home-rule petition.

Councilor at large Michael F. Flaherty, who also supports the measure, said: "We should be figuring out how to create a more just system that makes voting easier and more accessible. Ballots without complete translation rob residents with language barriers of their right to cast an informed vote."

The city does not transliterate the names of candidates into Vietnamese because that written language is derived from the Roman alphabet.

Of the 6,545 voters with Chinese surnames in Boston, 1,563 are elderly and are believed to struggle most with English, according to Boston's board of election commissioners.

In interviews this week, voters said the bilingual ballots and Chinese names helped them ensure they would cast the right vote.

"With the ballot translated, your chance of making a mistake is really small," said Tse Ngar Cho, an 83-year-old Chinatown resident whose whole world is in Chinese, from the newspapers he reads to the basketball games he watches. "You know what candidate you're voting for."

Jian Hua Tang, a 59-year-old Chinese schoolteacher, said she never would have confused Romney's name with "sticky rice," like Galvin suggested last year. "That's like saying if your last name is Green, I should confuse you as a green person," she said.

But Galvin said there are other ways to verify their vote. Last year, the state started providing a headset that allows voters to listen to the names of candidates in their native language while in the voting booth. In addition, he said, more interpreters and bilingual materials are now at the polls.

Adding translated names in Chinese is "too much" for the next election, he said. "Trying to get into having additional ballots for [Chinese names] . . . is something I don't think we really need right now," he said.

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.