Language help at the polls
Sixteen Massachusetts cities and towns are required by federal law to provide Spanish-language ballots and election materials. Four more are covered for Khmer, Chinese or Vietnamese. Here's the list, what coverage actually requires, and the help any voter can ask for anywhere in the state.
Where ballots are translated
Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act requires certain municipalities to provide election materials in a language other than English. Which ones are covered is determined by the Census Bureau. Under the December 2021 determinations, which are the ones currently in effect, these sixteen Massachusetts municipalities are covered for Spanish:
- Boston
- Chelsea
- Clinton
- Everett
- Fitchburg
- Holyoke
- Lawrence
- Leominster
- Lowell
- Lynn
- Methuen
- Revere
- Salem
- Southbridge
- Springfield
- Worcester
Massachusetts is covered in other languages too: Lowell for Khmer (Cambodian), Malden and Quincy for Chinese, and Randolph for Vietnamese.
If your city isn't on the list, that doesn't mean there's no help available. It means federal law doesn't compel it. Plenty of municipalities provide translated materials or bilingual staff anyway, and the rights in the section below apply statewide.
What coverage actually requires
Where Section 203 applies, it covers more than the ballot. The municipality has to provide in the covered language anything it provides in English relating to the electoral process: the ballot, registration forms, sample ballots, polling place notices, instructions and mail ballots. The law also requires oral assistance, meaning bilingual poll workers where they're needed, not just translated paper.
If you're told in one of those municipalities that no Spanish ballot is available, that isn't a matter of courtesy. It's a federal requirement.
What you can ask for anywhere in Massachusetts
These two rights come from the state's Voters' Bill of Rights and apply in every municipality, covered or not:
- You can ask for help voting from anyone of your choice. If you don't bring someone with you, you have the right to have two poll workers assist you.
- You have the right to vote if you cannot read or write, or cannot read or write English.
Official Spanish-language materials
The Secretary of the Commonwealth publishes the official guide, Information for Voters, in Spanish as well as English. That guide carries the full legal text of each question and the arguments written by the campaigns themselves. It's the primary source; this site is a companion to it. It's on the official guide page.
All nine questions on this site are also available in Spanish, one page each, starting from the Spanish question list.
Sources for this page
- Federal Register: Determinations Under Section 203, December 8, 2021, which is where the municipality list comes from.
- U.S. Department of Justice: Language Minority Citizens, on what Section 203 requires.
- Secretary of the Commonwealth: Voters' Bill of Rights, the source of the two rights quoted above.