Election Judges in Schaumburg Township Make Discriminatory Comments in Polling Sites

During the primary elections on March 18, 2014, Asian Americans Advancing Justice—Chicago (Advancing Justice—Chicago), Common Cause Illinois, and Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. partnered to conduct Election Protection, non-partisan poll watching throughout Chicago and the suburbs. In the late morning in Schaumburg Township, volunteer poll watchers reported two separate instances of election judges, while serving in the polling place, openly making disparaging comments about limited English proficient voters. These two separate incidents, one involving Democrat-appointed election judges and the other involving Republican-appointed election judges, were promptly reported shortly after noon to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, with the request that these specific judges be immediately removed from the polling places. (more…)

Primary Poll Monitoring Reveals Improvement in Language Assistance in Cook County

Chicago-On March 18, Asian Americans Advancing Justice—Chicago, in partnership with Common Cause Illinois and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee, ran a poll monitoring operation covering over 85 precincts across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Advancing Justice—Chicago focused on monitoring 56 precincts federally designated for language assistance in both Chinese and South Asian languages, to ensure that election law was properly implemented. Polling sites ranged from Schaumburg to Chinatown. Early polling reports indicate that overall, Cook County sites performed well. There were two instances of absent bilingual election judges, some technology issues at sites leading to slightly longer voting times, and two incidents of inappropriate comments from election judges. Advancing Justice—Chicago legal director Andy Kang described the poll monitoring goal as, “designed to ensure that any voter who is able to get assistance isn’t turned away. While we’ve seen improvement in terms of materials and responsiveness from election judges, there’s still some work to be done in making polling sites more accessible, and election judges as sensitive as possible to the language assistance needs of limited-English speaking voters, who are entitled to certain voting rights under federal law.” (more…)

Asian American Community Organizations Celebrate Key Hire for Language Assistance at Polls

Chicago-Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago (Advancing Justice-Chicago) and the South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI) celebrate the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners’ hiring of Ms. Shobhana Johri Verma as Chicago’s first-ever liaison with the city’s Indian American voters and community organizations. (more…)