The Weekly Standard has an article  about a place who may be sued by the DOJ, Cuyahoga County near Cleveland, for not using Spanish language ballots.  Two important points:

1. Perhaps the article understandably doesn’t capture the nuance of the situation, but I am flabbergasted that no “notice letter” was sent to the county.  Notice letters have been standard procedure at the Justice Department for over a decade at least.  A notice letter is a formal notification than a lawsuit has been authorized and an invitation for negotiations.  The article states: “When queried as to why they could not receive documentation of the department’s concerns in writing the county officials were told that the department ‘didn’t want to create a public record.'”  If the adminstration has truly dispensed with the notice letter, this is staggering.  It is akin to a visit “asking” if you want to put a cigarette machine in your storefront.  The notice letter usually summarizes the legal basis for a lawsuit.   Reporters, and Congress, should follow up aggressively and demand to know why the Voting Section did not use a notice letter in Cuyahoga and instead engaged in an odd exercise of secret, shall we say, suggestion.

2. I also want it to be clear that the 4e triggers are almost certainly LOWER than the regular Section 203 triggers for Spanish language in places like Harris County Texas or Miami Dade.  Because it is Puerto Rican citizens, the law is different and there is no doubt there is likely some legal obligation.  The questions are, however, how much obligation and how is the obligation met?