For the many non-English-speaking residents of Boston who can vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, the city has created resources to help them through the process.

“We hired over 2,000 poll workers to help on Election Day — I think 400 of them speak a language other than English,” Eneida Tavares, president of the Boston Election Commission, said at an event last weekend.

Multilingual poll workers assist with language assistance on-site and by phone through the Boston Elections Department’s translator phone bank. Voters have access to a language ID card that helps connect them to a translator.

Sarah Betancourt

GBH News

If a particular language is not accessible at the polling place, the call center will be notified, according to Gayana Daniel of the Language and Communications Access Bureau.

“It’s important because we have voters especially older ones who are American citizens whose primary language is not English,” said Dr. Neenah Estrella-Luna, a community advocate. She has worked with Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE) and said they have seen many cases over the years where seniors receive ballots in English. “It’s hard for them to understand – they might know the candidates, but the office names being translated can be confusing for them if they’re not actually in the language they speak best.”

She’s also a poll watcher in East Boston and says the city has more Spanish-speaking poll workers than when she started 15 years ago. “I’ve seen that play improve significantly,” she said.

The city places the multilingual workers it has in surveys based on the demographics of the area.

“If you’re in Mattapan, there’s a very, very good chance there’s going to be a Haitian Creole speaker working at the polling place,” Estrella-Luna said.

A city or town with more than 10,000 residents who speak a language other than English — or more than 5 percent of voters — must have election materials and ballots translated into that language, according to federal law. Nearly 10% of MA’s working-age residents speak English with limited proficiency, according to a
report from MassINC and the UMass Donahue Institute. Nineteen cities and towns in the state offer ballots in languages ​​other than English.

Immigrant Advocacy City Hall Highlights City Voter Guide. “This was a big effort to make sure multilingual learners have the information they need to be truly empowered at the polls,” said Executive Director Monique Tú Nguyen. “In the last election. I heard that people had a hard time even identifying themselves at the polls or that they had trouble communicating directly with poll workers.”

The multilingual descriptions of the ballot questions are
online in 11
limb. The ballot itself is available in Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

Incorrect information about non-citizen voters participating in federal elections is
being spread to Trump rallies. Nguyen said it is “very clear” to immigrants that citizenship is required to vote federally, and anything that says otherwise is misinformation.

“We’re having a hard time getting citizen voters who are immigrants to vote because of this false narrative,” she said. “The problem is the other way around — we’re trying to get more eligible immigrants to vote to get to the polls.”

Eny Lovo is a voting advocate at NUBE, which has about 20 people helping Spanish speakers learn about the voting process in Boston, Everett, Chelsea, Salem, Malden, Somerville and Revere.

“Things are more inclusive,” she said of the city’s language options. “Much more democratic for our communities.” Lovo recommends improving the voting process for people who cannot see or read or write in their language.

“I said don’t worry, we can help you vote,” she said in a Spanish-language interview. The group helps teach people about early and mail-in voting. They registered 50 new voters, over 20 ballots for people who can’t vote and talked to over 7,500 people about voting. They don’t recommend a particular political candidate, but educate people about the different questions on the ballot and what each side is saying.

The city is still looking to hire bilingual speakers for the following languages: Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Somali, Russian, Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean Creole.

There is a scholarship to be an election worker. But first they must go through a paid two-hour training session where they learn about election laws and their responsibilities on Election Day. The last poll worker training session in Boston is Sunday.