Hispanic voters in Long Island cannot vote on November 4 because election materials are not in Spanish, said 20 Long Island community organizations. Members of these organizations went to the headquarters of Suffolk County’s Election Board and submitted a petition in this regard.

Patrick Young, of Long Island Immigrant Alliance (LIIA), demanded that election authorities provide materials in Spanish so that Latinos could participate in the upcoming elections on November 4. Other activists who were demanding the same include Arif Ullah, also of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, Nadia Marín, director of the Labor Rights Center and Ann Sullivan, coordinator for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

“For over 11 years this county has not done anything about providing Spanish language materials. They say that they don’t have the capacity to fulfill this legal responsibility, when in fact they have had ample time to make this a reality,” said Marín. The pressure applied by immigrant rights organizations on the Election Board is the key to enfranchising the Hispanic population in Long Island.

“In Nassau County we have a meeting at the end of October with the electoral authorities to analyze the problem of Spanish language materials,” said Marín.

“It’s a scandal that Long Island’s Hispanic population eligible to vote cannot have election material in their own language,” said Rony Martinez, a Hispanic activist from Long Island, in front of the offices Suffolk County’s Election Board. “According to federal law, Spanish speaking citizens that live in this country have the right to have information in Spanish,” he said.

Carlos Canales, who works with Hispanic day laborers, said that one of the frequent complaints that they received was that during the elections there are no interpreters to help Latino voters. “On the ballot there are no instructions for the voters in Spanish, and that is against the law,” he said. Amanda Garcia, an activist from Hempstead agreed.

“When we go to the voting booth we don’t know exactly how the process works due to a lack of information and because there’s no one that gives us directions on how to vote. At times, people have told me, mark here, put another here, but there are no qualified personnel,” said Jackson Calderón, a resident.