Imperial County Language Accessibility Advisory Committee (LAAC)
Help county elections official establish a Language Accessibility Advisory Committee (LAAC) and create a meaningful and helpful role for it to serve the limited English proficient (LEP) voters of your community.
California is home to nearly 2.5 million eligible LEP voters. For LEP voters who seek to participate and contribute meaningfully in the U.S.’s democratic
process but are not yet familiar with voting procedures, navigating the state’s election system may be daunting. In order to cast a well-informed vote and understand how to participate in California’s electoral process, LEP voters need to be able to read election information and outreach materials, and receive instructions from poll workers in the language they speak.
At the same time, challenges arise reaching those voters. For example, beyond language barriers between the elections office and these communities, there may also be cultural and/or geographic barriers. LAAC are a way to help bridge those gaps by forgoing relationships with
expertise, and others who may be uniquely situated to advise the Registrar of Voter’s office on how to effectively include LEP voters in the democratic
process.
Although there are no formal requirements for LAACs, in terms of membership, meetings, or their role, based on experience of counties that have already established local LAACs, they have been an effective resource for receiving input and providing assistance on translations, community outreach plans, and bilingual poll worker recruitment and placement, among providing other benefits. It is therefore a recommended best practice for language assistance to maintain a year-round LAAC.
The mission of the LAAC is to advise and assist the County Registrar with implementation of federal and state laws relating to access to the electoral process by voters with limited-English proficiency, so that all persons who vote can understand the voting process. Imperial County is required to provide language assistance in accordance with state and federal law for the following covered language: Spanish. The LAAC also provides recommendations identifying and prioritizing activities, programs, and policies to ensure every voter has equal access to the ballot.
If you would like to serve on the Imperial County LAAC or you know of anyone you think should be on the committee please complete the attached application and return to Linsey Dale, Registrar of Voters at linseydale@co.imperial.ca.us. We will select qualified individuals for membership in the committee.