Latino groups denounce voting laws that set back help to voters with disabilities, language issues
Laws in three states have enacted tougher restrictions for people who help voters with disabilities, language or other issues cast their ballots.
Laws in three states have enacted tougher restrictions for people who help voters with disabilities, language or other issues cast their ballots. Latino groups who have sued Texas, Arkansas and Missouri over these laws are warning that those who need help to vote in November’s elections may not get the assistance they need.
“Many Latino voters have disabilities or English is not their first language. They also don’t know how to use the voting computers and get very nervous, so they ask for someone to help them validate their vote,” said Tania Chavez Camacho, executive director of the Texas-based nonprofit community organization La Unión del Pueblo Entero, known as LUPE.
“But now the state requires that if you want to help a voter, you have to take an oath that says that if you violate the rules, you could be criminalized: That affects volunteers. In the end, some people don’t vote because of these obstacles,” Chavez Camacho said, referring to Texas law SB 1, which went into effect in 2021.
Under the law, assistants must fill out new paperwork disclosing their relationship to the voter and take an oath to limit their help as well as declare they didn’t “pressure or coerce” the voter into choosing them as an assistant. The oath is made under penalty of perjury, a state felony that carries jail time.
Under the Voting Rights Act, voters who need assistance because they are blind, disabled, or unable to read or write may receive assistance at the polls. But volunteers in Texas say SB 1 is making it difficult to provide that assistance.
Rating: 5