Boston, Massachusetts, Elections to Be Monitored by the U.S. Justice Department

In a recent press release, the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that they will be monitoring the special primary elections that are held in Boston, Massachusetts, this year. The Justice Dept. is acting under the provisions of the United States Voting Rights Act and a federal court order from 2005.

Boston was found to be in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This section "requires that citizens be allowed to participate equally in all phases of the election process without regard to race, color or membership in a language-minority group."

Observers from the Office of Personnel Management will be sent to specific voting areas to monitor the activities taking place in those voting areas. The observers will watch and record activities that take place at the voting areas in Boston.

According to the court order, Boston voting locations must provide voting assistance in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. The original complain showed that Boston had significant Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese speaking populations.

Boston minority population
Having ballots in multiple languages is not new to Boston. They have been required to have bilingual elections in Spanish since September 18, 1992.

The 2000 Census revealed that the Hispanic voting population in Boston is estimated to be 33,596, Chinese voting population 9,825, and its Vietnamese voting population is 4,220. Many of these voters do not speak English.

About the Office of Personnel Management
The Office of Personnel Management has been involved in monitoring elections across the country for many years. They monitored 1,463 federal elections in 2004, setting a department record.

Past election monitoring
2006
This was a mid-term election but many polling places were monitored on Election Day. During 2006, the Office of Personnel Management sent over 800 federal observers to monitor polling places in 69 different jurisdictions, in 22 different states.