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DOJ Sues MA City over Unequal Voter Access

By Zach Proulx
Posted on Fri Aug 04, 2006 at 12:47:52 PM EST

The Massachusetts Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has sued the city of Springfield for denying minority groups equal opportunities to cast votes.  The lawsuit claims that:

... poll workers failed to provide Spanish-language assistance to voters, treated Spanish speakers with hostility and would not let them receive translation assistance from people who accompanied them to the polls.

The lawsuit hinges upon several recently extended provisions of the Voting Rights Act that, inter alia, provide for language assistance in jurisdictions with significant minority populations.  If true, the case demonstrates that voting rights injustices need not be confined to Southern states.  It's a national problem.


Tags: Springfield, Massachusetts, Voting Rights Act, Voting Rights, In the States (all tags)


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DOJ Sues MA City over Unequal Voter Access :: 1 Comment

The VRA is Alive and Well

This is very interesting, Zach. This suit falls under the recently renewed section 203 of the VRA, which provides bilingual assistance to non-English speaking citizens.

This story shows that the detractors were wrong that the VRA was outdated on many accounts. When one thinks of bilingual assistance in voting, I bet Springfield is not the first city to come to mind.

by Matt Caruso on Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 10:11:39 AM EST


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