Ballots and voter information is now available in four languages by the Fairfax County Office of Elections, including English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean.
Spanish language voter information has been available since 2011 for county voters, as required by Section 203 of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Vietnamese language is a federal requirement effective December 2016. The Fairfax County Electoral Board added the Korean language effective for the June 13 primaries since the county is very close to meeting the federal requirement.
Fairfax County is the only jurisdiction in Virginia with the additional language requirements.
The Voting Rights Act mandates that a state or political subdivision must provide language assistance to voters if more than five percent of voting age citizens are members of a single language minority group and do not ‘‘speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process’’ and if the rate of those citizens who have not completed the fifth grade is higher than the national rate of voting age citizens who have not completed the fifth grade.
Read the Federal Register announcement, including language requirements for other counties throughout the U.S. (begins at bottom of second column).
Voting information and resources that are now available in all four languages includes:
- Ballots
- Voter Registration Forms
- Absentee Ballot Applications
- Bilingual election officers (at many poll locations)
In addition, the Office of Elections has language access for voters who call 703-222-0776 or email voting@fairfaxcounty.gov. For more information on voting in the June 13 primaries watch the county's Facebook Live on Monday, June 5 at approximately 2 p.m.
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