Lawsuits: Initiative Petitions Are Invalid if Written in English Only
So now the activists are trying to invalidate initiatives by complaining that the petitions are written in English only.
Jesus. How many freaking languages do we have to translate these things into? I mean, we can translate them into Spanish, sure, but what about the poor guy who speaks only Gaelic or Tagalog? And is the initiative invalid if it turns out after the fact that the Swahili or Urdu version mistranslated the number “three” as “two,” or some nonsense like that?
This is the height of multicultural nonsense.
There is a simple answer to this: if you want to vote on an initiative, and the petition is written in English, learn to read English.
Otherwise, stop whining.
Hell, it’s probably written in lawyerese English anyway. It’s not like we can understand it any better than you can.
If I understand this correctly, it makes little sense as there is no voting on petitions. You can only register your support of, not opposition to, an initiative petition. Petition backers have no reason – other than cost – not to translate petitions into as many languages as possible.
Now I don’t know how things currently work, but once initiatives are approved for the ballot, and the state has decided that voting materials must be provided in multiple languages, I would think that the state should bear translation costs.
Nels Nelson (007539) — 6/19/2006 @ 4:29 pmHmmm, and here I thought command of English was a requirement for naturalization.
Then again, what about illiterate Americans? Should it be done in sign language or audiobook?
Hey, I have a simple answer: if the circulators can’t put it in a language you can read, DON’T SIGN IT. They want you to sign it. If they care enough about you signing it, they’ll translate it. Until they do, punish them and boycott signing what you can’t read.
Now, does the lawsuit claim that people sign things they can’t read, and this invalidates them?
What about … uh … mortgages? Car loans? Contracts in general? Are these now questionable? If not, why is this a &%^$% issue?
Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 6/19/2006 @ 4:34 pmI really want to see the ballot printed in African Click language.
CStudent (59bfb8) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:09 pmPatterico — it’s worse than you think. The initiative is translated in the ballot pamphlet, so if you want to vote for it, you can read it in Spanish or Chinese or whatever other languages we translate ballot materials into.
The complaint is about *petitions*.
It’s absurd.
[I thought I said petitions. — P]
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:14 pmFor that matter, I don’t see why it would be a problem if, in some place like Watsonville, a ballot petition written in Spanish were circulated for signatures.
If it qualified for the ballot based on recieving the appropriate number of signatures, i’d want it translated into English and whatever other languages were required for translation in that county … but it seems to me that being in Spanish should not per se invalidate the petition.
Successfully circulating an initiative petition in Spanish would be a better way for them to make their political point, as well.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:21 pmThis story is not a joke as any English speaker in Canada can tell you. It’s just another ratchet by the lefties in choking all the efficiency out of your political and commercial lives.
Let me tell you what’s next. Mandatory labeling of drugs in Spanish or whatever. For the kids, y’know so they won’t croak on an overdose of aspirin because momma can’t read English. Then children’s foods. Then safety products. Then all foods. Then, what the hell, all products.
Finally, some merchant wants to buy a great product from a small producer in Iowa or Laos, guess what, no can do without a new label in both English and Ebonics. Takes weeks to get a certified translator and adds lotsa dough to the price. Wal-Mart can do it easily because they buy 50 jillion units and the unitized costs are small.
Joe’s custom widgets gets screwed. He does not buy at all. Takes too long and costs too much. Joe’s customers get screwed just as hard.
The only ones happy are the lefty nut-bars who hate commercial efficiency and freedom of choice anyway.
BlacquesJacquesShellacques (83acf5) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:29 pmSeeing this like this makes me think that we should adopt English as the official language. Then this nonsense would stop.
Ray (be81f9) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:40 pmaphrael, in general I agree that initiatives should be able to originate in languages other than English, but I wonder if this might too heavily burden the government, as it has to run proposed initiatives through a legal review process – approving the text exactly as it will appear – before they can circulate on petitions. While I don’t know the numbers, I would imagine that many initiatives approved for petition circulation don’t go on to collect the required number of signatures.
Nels Nelson (007539) — 6/19/2006 @ 5:53 pmNotice that our “friends” on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals initially ruled that the petitions have to be printed “in languages that the voters can understand.” As our host pointed out, there goes the prospect of all the petitions being written in lawyerese. From now on a valid petition will have to read, “Like, OK, so if you you, like, vote yes, then, like, we’ll raise taxes and we’ll, like, let all these little kids, like, go to school, OK?”
JVW (88e36f) — 6/19/2006 @ 7:41 pmAlso, pass the reading test. Thats how it works when we get the consent of the governed.
actus (6234ee) — 6/19/2006 @ 8:54 pmNels – that’s a good point. The overwhelming majority of initiatives approved fail to qualify.
That said, there are certain translators which the state already has for this sort of purpose. I don’t expect a problem with, say, Spanish … and I expect that the number of languages in which a petition might actually have a chance of qualification is small.
aphrael (3bacf3) — 6/19/2006 @ 9:03 pmPatterico – you did say petitions, but I was confused by the “if you want to vote for” part of your post. The issue isn’t being able to vote for the initiatives, since when you’re asked to vote, the initiative will be translated; it’s being able to read them before deciding whether or not to sign them.
The thing that seems absurd to me is this: so you don’t sign. The burden is on the circulators to get enough people to sign; if they think that’s going to hurt them, they can provide translated petitions.
I would object if translated petitions weren’t legal, and if signatures on them didn’t count; but there’s no need to require them. Let circulators who think translating would help them qualify the initiative translate, and let circulators who don’t think it would be helpful not translate. Don’t impose the cost on everyone.
aphrael (3bacf3) — 6/19/2006 @ 9:05 pmLearning English is not that tuff believe me! you just need to learn it with little more concentration!!
All the best!
Linda (95a90b) — 6/20/2006 @ 4:45 amI think we’ve found the source of your beef.
actus (ebc508) — 6/20/2006 @ 6:50 amI agree with Aphrael. “If you want to vote on an initiative, and the petition is written in English, learn to read English” is a simple enough proposition in its own right, but the issue is actually simpler than that. Instead, I’d say “if someone presents you with a petition, a contract, or any other document written in a language you don’t understand, don’t sign it.” If the petitioners are too cheap to translate the petition, they’ll get fewer signatures.
Xrlq (f52b4f) — 6/20/2006 @ 8:04 am[…] Patterico is upset about a lawsuit challenging initiatives because the petitions are printed only in English. Filed under:Immigration— Conor Friedersdorf @ 11:24 am […]
A Special Report on Immigration - Beyond Borders Blog » A Ballot Initiative Lawsuit (8a9a2e) — 6/20/2006 @ 12:24 pmBoy, I can imagine the Colorado Supreme court going over the “restricted social servces” amendment in 25 different languages to make sure the issues on that petition were correct. Actually, based on their idiotic decision, maybe that is what happened.
Ralph (9fb531) — 6/21/2006 @ 2:01 pmTime to kick the UN out of our country and ban illegal imagration and deport all illegal aleins and expell those stpud youths who took paert in the procrinimal rallies
krazy kagu (f63577) — 8/20/2006 @ 1:57 pm[…] So: while this ruling relates to a recall election, its logic should also put the kibosh on efforts by activists to invalidate initiatives because the petitions are written only in English. Which is good, because (as I previously discussed here) those are very silly efforts. […]
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