Speech #940066734

I believe that this island is probably unique in comparison to all of the counties and political subdivisions of any Member of this body. because. being triggered under title II. as we have been since 1965 because the voting rate has been below 50 percent. this new bill under title II will very likely have the consequence of requiring that our county elections and the ballots and all the bilingual assistance appertaining thereto cover not only the two groups that I think perhaps need such assistance. that is. the Filpinos and the new Koreans that have arrived. but would also have to cover the Chinese and the Japanese whose illiteracy rate is far below the national average and who would most likely not be covered under title III. So it seems to me in our district we may very well have to have a ballot in five languages. if we count the aliens. So I support the thrust of the gentlemans amendment that in determining the voting age population that we seek to count those who are eligible to vote but who for some reason are not registered to vote and do not voteto count the noncitizen aliens in a district would completely nullify the accuracy of the percentage calculation. If we did not count the aliens residing on the island of Oahu. Oahu would be well above the 50percent limit and Oahu would not be triggered in under title II.