DES MOINES, Iowa — Starting Wednesday, Iowa voters can cast their ballot for the Nov. 7 election through early in-person and absentee voting. That process runs 20 days leading up to the election. But those ballots are printed in English, and English only.
Earlier this year, the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC) won a court case securing the right to have voting materials in Spanish when needed. The group's victory was short-lived, however, as Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has appealed the decision.
"We are appealing the district court's decision to protect election integrity and to uphold our English Language Reaffirmation Act here in Iowa," Attorney General Brenna Bird told Local 5 in August.
The Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act was signed into law in 2002 and mandated English as the state's official language for all documents, including voter registration, ballots and more.
LULAC representative Joe Enriquez Henry shared this appeal has forced the organization to take matters in their own hands.
"We're going to be working on printing that material, we're gonna go to the federal site to print up the voter registration form," Enriquez Henry said. "In addition, we're going to have to print up instructions that are germane to here to Iowa for election day, Nov. 7."
In addition to offering translation assistance to over 55 thousand Spanish speaking Iowa voters, LULAC's also advocating for bilingual polling workers to be priority hires.
"There's nothing to stop them from hiring people who are bilingual, who can speak another language who can be helpful on a temporary basis," Enriquez Henry said.
Due to a voter law that was enacted in 2021, it's harder to assist Iowans once they receive their ballot.
"Now we can communicate with people who want to request ballots, we can get information over to them, but unlike before, we cannot pick up the absentee ballot form once it's sent to them," Enriquez Henry said. "So, there's more communication that needs to be done there."
As for an update to the appeal, Local 5 has reached out to Bird's office and didn't receive an updated response. However, LULAC shared they aren't dragging their feet on this issue.
"We were looking forward to winning our case in court once it gets there to the state Supreme Court," Enriquez Henry said. "And again, this is America, this is supposed to be the country of democracy. So we're going to continue fighting this."
If you or someone you know is in need of help with the English translation of these ballots you can contact LULAC directly.