BILL TO EXPAND ACCESS TO THE BALLOT MOVES FORWARD

Legislation would create a multilingual ballot hotline and require certain counties to print ballots in languages other than English

DENVER, CO– The House State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee today passed HB21-1011, a bill to increase voter turnout and access by expanding access to multilingual ballots. The bill advanced by a vote of 6-3.

“Tens of thousands of eligible voters in Colorado are effectively denied access to the ballot because they do not speak English very well and live in counties where election materials are only provided in English,” said Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Thornton). “I’m committed to ensuring that our gold-standard electoral system is even more accessible to eligible voters of all stripes, and this bill takes an important step towards guaranteeing that.”

HB21-1011 would give all voters access to a hotline that would provide over-the-phone ballot translation in the top languages in which the census was offered. In addition, it would require that counties where a minority language is spoken by either 2,000 eligible voters or 2.5% of those eligible print ballots in that language, either on paper or electronically.