Multilingual ballots let more citizens be informed voters

A recent letter to the editor questioned why election ballots are printed in languages other than English, and speculated that these non-English ballots encourage voting by non-citizens. Both of these issues are very easy to resolve.

Ballots are printed in languages other than English because some people who speak enough English to get by and be productive, legal U.S. citizens also want to know enough about issues to cast an informed vote. They don’t just tick off the box next to the candidate with an “R” or a “D” next to their names. They exercise the time-honored American right of collecting information before voting. If they want to read about the issues in their native language, I think we should be proud of them, rather than critical of them.

As for non-citizens voting, this is simply not a problem in Washington, or anywhere in the U.S. There is no shred of evidence showing that the results of any recent American election were changed as a result of non-citizens voting.

It’s truly tragic that so many Americans believe in conspiracies intended to get non-citizens to vote. It is even more tragic that our president is one of the main supporters of these conspiracies.

Steve Close

Moses Lake