Mr. Speaker. today I am introducing legislation to terminate the effect of provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that require bilingual ballots and election materials and to permit the States to determine whether such ballots and materials are necessary. Few would deny the premise that command and proficiency of the English language is vital to immigrants if they anticipate becoming participating and contributing members of our communities. In order for an immigrant to become a U.S. citizen. our laws state that he or she must read. write. and speak English in ordinary usage. Our laws also mandate. however. that immigrants who vote must be provided with ballots in their native language if the community in which they reside has at least a 5percent nonEnglishspeaking population. This multilingual policy at the ballot box. where the voter employs his most valuable right of citizenship. often presents an undue financial burden In localities where the cost of printing bilingual ballots clearly outweighs the demand for those ballots. As an example.
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