GOLDEN, Colo. — Before Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez was elected, she helped pass a bill to expand language access. Gonzalez worked with the legislature while she was an executive director for Colorado Common Cause to pass HB 21-1011 which created voting opportunities in other languages as well as a hotline for voters.
The bill created a multilingual ballot hotline to provide access to qualified translators or interpreters for most spoken languages in the state. It also created requirements for counties to provide sample ballots for languages spoken in their counties if there were more than 2,000 citizens living in the county who speak "English less than very well" or if they make up at least 2.5% of the number of citizens in the county.
In Jefferson County, it means that they provide sample ballots in Spanish online. The county also provides a language-accessible machine for voters where they can vote in Spanish at the polls.
"I want to make sure that everybody is able to read and understand their ballot and vote in a way that is consistent in their values, and it’s really hard to do if it’s English only, and it’s not a language that you speak really well," Gonzalez said.
Based on the threshold laid out by the legislature, around 20 counties in Colorado have to provide ballots in another language including Jefferson, Adams, Denver and Arapahoe counties. This is the first Presidential Election with the requirement.
"I think it tells somebody that they matter when they are able to vote, when they are able to read and understand and cast their ballot," Gonzalez said.
According to data from the last U.S. Census, it could impact more than 80,000 Colorado voters.
"Every member of our community who is eligible to vote should have their voices heard," Gonzalez said.