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March 29, 2021

HOUSE APPROVES BALLOT ACCESS EXPANSION

Legislation to create a multilingual ballot hotline and require certain counties to print ballots in languages other than English passes House on third reading


DENVER, CO– The House today passed Representative Yadira Caraveo’s bill to increase voter turnout and access by expanding access to multilingual ballots. The bill passed the House by a vote of 40-23.

“Ensuring that more eligible voters thoroughly understand their ballots and are able to freely cast their vote is good for democracy and good for Colorado,” said Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Thornton). “Colorado’s elections system is among the best in the country and the world because it makes it easy for voters to participate in the democratic process while guaranteeing the integrity of our elections. Today we took a important step towards improving our gold-standard system by truly enfranchising eligible voters in Colorado who do not speak English very well but want to make their voices heard.” 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.

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