Malden Commits To Chinese Language Election Accessibility Measures In Agreement

MALDEN, MA — The city of Malden has committed to implementing a series of voter accessibility measures under a memorandum of understanding that it finalized last week with organizations advocating for the local Chinese-speaking community.

Announced by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund on Friday of last week, the agreement looks to formalize prior commitments made in response to allegations from the Legal Defense and Education Fund and other groups that said the city violated a section of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 203 with regard to Chinese-speaking residents.

“This (Memorandum of Understanding) is a further example of Malden’s ongoing commitment to access and equity, full electoral participation, and compliance with Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act,” a copy of the agreement shared by the Legal Defense and Education Fund noted.

Concerns Date Back Years

Section 203 requires communities to provide various language accommodations when more than five percent of the local population has limited English proficiency, among other things. The rule applies to Malden, where 7.4% of the voting age residents are classified as limited English proficiency Chinese-speaking persons, as noted in last week’s memorandum of understanding.

Talk of possible Section 203 violations in Malden dates back years, with poll watchers previously flagging concerns on multiple occasions.

Malden has looked to address problems in the past, making some gains, according to the Legal Defense and Education Fund's copy of the memorandum.

“Although Malden made progress toward compliance during the November 2020 election cycle, Malden regressed in the November 2021 general election,” the document continued, however.

The memorandum was signed by representatives of the Legal Defense and Education Fund, Greater Boston Legal Services’ Asian Outreach Unit, the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition and Malden Mayor Gary Christenson.

In the document, the Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Asian Outreach Unit and the Asian American Community Coalition said that issues in last fall’s general municipal election included a lack of sufficient interpreters and bilingual poll workers, with a Chinese-speaking poll worker present at only one of six sites visited by poll watchers.

The lone Chinese-speaking poll worker then only spoke Mandarin, leaving them unable to communicate with Chinese-speakers who only speak the Cantonese dialect, the organizations said. Of Malden’s limited English proficiency Chinese-speaking persons, 92% speak Cantonese while just 8% speak Mandarin, according to last week's memorandum.

In the copy of the memorandum they shared, the Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Asian Outreach Unit and the Asian American Community Coalition alleged that there was also a lack of translated signage in polling places.

“In stark contrast to progress made ahead of the November 2020 election, the City failed to conduct sufficient Chinese-language outreach,” the organizations added, saying that most outreach was conducted exclusively in English.

Beyond lack of signage and outreach, organizations have said that the city had a series of translation errors in some places where it did provide translation.

As part of that, organizations said an election website was translated using a Google Translate function rather than a professional translator, leading to some inaccurate translations.

Agreement Charts Next Steps

Moving forward, Malden has agreed to form an advisory group to help steer its voter accessibility programs for limited-English proficiency residents, according to the memorandum. That group will be required to meet monthly in the runup to and immediate aftermath of any elections in Malden.

Among other things, the city will provide all relevant election materials in both English and Chinese. That will involve hiring professional translators to provide accurate translation in places including the city’s website, according to a statement from the Legal Defense and Education Fund and their copy of the agreement

The city will work to provide transliterations of English candidate names on ballots. Malden will also designate a program coordinator to work under the city clerk and coordinate Chinese language election efforts.

Under the agreement, the city will assign at least one Cantonese-speaking bilingual poll worker or interpreter at each of its polling places, with one Mandarin-speaking bilingual poll worker or interpreter at polling places where they are needed.

Leaders Respond

Local community leaders responded to this agreement in a statement from the Legal Defense and Education Fund. Susana Lorenzo-Giguere, the associate director of the fund’s Democracy Program said the agreement would provide a “roadmap for achieving equality at the polls for the upcoming midterm elections and beyond.”

“This victory for the voting rights of the Chinese American community of Malden is a victory for all our communities,” Jodie Ng, a staff attorney in the Asian Outreach Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services said. “It is the result of years of collaboration with the community organizations of Malden and the greater Boston area and demonstrates the power that we have when we work together.”

Christenson shared his thoughts in a statement to Patch on Monday.

“This memorializes all of the work we have been doing over the past several years and solidifies our commitment into the future,” he said. “I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication to this most important issue!”

Writing on Twitter on Monday, Christenson also shared a series of bilingual messages alerting both English-speaking and Chinese-speaking voters about the city’s early-voting options, as had been called for in the memorandum.

This agreement stems from a previous set of community agreements in May that noted a number of similar steps for the city.

With the memorandum now in place just over a week before this year’s state primary elections, the Legal Defense and Education Fund said the memorandum will apply to all elections in Malden going forward.

Read the memorandum of understanding as shared by the Legal Defense and Education Fund here.