The Chronicle Telegram reports on a visit from two DOJ Voting Section attorneys late last week: Elections board Director Paul Adams said the office probably would be able to offer the bilingual voting in the Nov. 8 election, depending on how quickly the office receives final language on a number of ballot issues. The meeting with four attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department was congenial, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Heyer said the federal prosecutors were willing to take stronger action. “The reality is this is a requirement of the law,” Heyer said. “If you say no, we’ll take you to court.” “Families are here, and they bring people here,” said Katherine Colliton [sic] -Gonzales, a trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department. County officials stressed that they are worried about the additional expense involved in some aspects of offering bilingual ballots, especially in mailing out absentee ballots. It could cost an extra $70,000 in printing and postage costs if the ballots are too large to fit into envelopes the board currently uses to mail absentee ballots. County Administrator James Cordes said $70,000 is the equivalent of a sheriff’s deputy’s salary and he said, “Somebody is going to lose some money in the county to pay for this unfunded mandate.” Absentee ballots in Spanish would likely be offered next year. The federal prosecutors agreed that the ballots could be sent out in either Spanish or English based on whether the person requesting the ballot filled out the request in Spanish or English, according to the agreement reached Thursday. The federal attorneys said they still plan to file a lawsuit so the settlement agreement can be journalized as a legal document.
One of the DOJ lawyers is quoted in the story as follows: