Dearborn Michigan Residents Believe Their Ballots Should Be Printed In Other Languages

The question really comes down to the following: should a ballot to vote in any of our elections be printed in any language requested?  The Arab American community in the city of Dearborn Michigan is asking the city to provide “more voting information and ballots” in the Arabic language.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that after receiving complaints from civil rights groups Dearborn did add an absentee voter registration form on their website in the  Arabic language.  These groups are still demanding Arabic-language ballots.

The executive director of Engage Michigan, Nada Al-Hanooti said:

"For a city like Dearborn, which has the largest number of Arab Americans in the country, this should have already been available to our residents”

Can we as a nation say that we will pick and chose which languages our election ballots should be printed in due to the wants of a community?  What is the percentage of a certain population in which we would deny their access to an election ballot printed in their native language and not of the country they expressed a want and desire to live in?

Are we not already the United States of America with English as our official language?

In our form of government, we cannot favor one language over another except for our official language which once again is English. If we print an election ballot in one language we must then print them in any language requested and that will get really ugly and expensive quickly.

Also, why would we make it harder for someone to assimilate into our country by not expecting them to learn our language?   According to stilt.com:

“To obtain American citizenship, you need to get naturalized first. As part of the naturalization process, you must take a citizenship test in English. But what if you’re not comfortable in English and wish to take it in your native language? Is it possible? In this article, we’ll explain it to you…So, to answer the question as to whether you need to take the citizenship test in English: “Yes, you have to.” There are exceptions wherein you can skip the English test, but you cannot take it in your native language.”

Would you go to live in another country, eventually become a citizen of that country then ask them to print all of their government documents in your native language?

How do people who cannot read English well enough to vote, pass the citizenship test?

Again I ask should any election documentation or ballots to vote in any of our elections be printed in any language requested?