Today's Date: March 28, 2024
Lenzing strives to drive beneficial transformation across the value chain   •   The Home Depot Announces Agreement to Acquire SRS Distribution, a Leading Specialty Trade Distributor Across Multiple Verticals;   •   Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Palantir Partner to Create Safe Conditions for In-Person Education in Schools   •   Apogee Enterprises Schedules Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call   •   Chris Diehl Returns to 101 Mobility as Director of National Accounts   •   Cardinal Tobin Blesses New Open-Air Mausoleum of the Holy Spirit Site   •   Lightshift Energy Raises $100 Million From Greenbacker Capital Management to Expand Utility Scale Battery Storage Across North A   •   Parental avoidance of toxic exposures could help prevent autism, ADHD in children, new study shows   •   Guo Guangchang: "Focus on building sustainable, predictable and enterprise with stable profit growth "   •   Latest U.S. Soybean Field Trials by Texas Crop Science Deliver Average Yield Increase of More Than 20%   •   Stora Enso publishes Green and Sustainability-Linked Financing Report 2023   •   Government of Canada signs two bilateral agreements with Quebec to support initiatives to improve health care   •   Nutrex-Hawaii Introduces Its #1 Selling BioAstin® Hawaiian Astaxanthin® in a Retail-Ready, Sugar-Free, Vegan Gummy Forma   •   Netcracker Continues Its Support of the U.S. Paralympic Ski and Snowboard Team at Adaptive Spirit 2024   •   Avnos and Deep Sky Forge Path to Gigaton-Scale Carbon Removal in Canada   •   3EO Health Announces the First Point of Care Molecular Test Under $15   •   The Lenserf Group Launches Emotional Intelligence Academy for HBCU Interns   •   PRIVATE SCHOOL VILLAGE (PSV) AWARDS INAUGURAL ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS   •   Clean Energy Appoints Patrick J. Ford to Board of Directors   •   Fox Lake Grade School District 114 Selects Varsity Tutors for Schools to Provide Students with Additional Learning Resources
Bookmark and Share

DOJ Protects Native Voter's Rights


 

WASHINGTON, -- The Justice Department announced today an agreement with Shannon County, S.D., to ensure compliance with provisions of the Voting Rights Act that require the county to provide election materials and information in Lakota to Lakota-speaking American Indian voters, and to ensure compliance with certain provisions of the Help America Vote Act.

"The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and language barriers should never keep citizens from accessing that right," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Today's agreement ensures that Shannon County's Lakota-speaking citizens will have access to the election process and will be able to cast an effective ballot.  Shannon County should be congratulated for resolving the issue in a cooperative manner."   

The chairperson of the Shannon County Board of County Commissioners, Connie Whirlwind Horse, stated that "we have taken this opportunity to work with the federal government and the state to make voting better for the people of Shannon County."  Four of the five Shannon County commissioners are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. 

The agreement with Shannon County provides for a comprehensive Lakota language assistance program for American Indian voters, including trained bilingual election officials to be available at all polling places in the County.  Further, the agreement provides that each polling place will have in place an operational voting system that provides accessibility for minority language voters through a Lakota audio ballot as well as accessibility to voters with disabilities, as required by Section 301 of the Help America Vote Act.  The agreement also ensures that polling places will consistently post voting information and provide provisional ballots and written information on how a voter can check whether a provisional ballot was counted, as required by Section 302(a) of the Help America Vote Act.

The Voting Rights Act requires that jurisdictions determined by the Census Bureau to have a substantial population of minority-language citizens, such as Shannon County, provide voting materials and assistance in the minority language as well as in English.  The Help America Vote Act requires that voting information be publicly posted in polling locations and that otherwise qualified voters whose names do not appear on registration lists are provided a provisional ballot as well as written information on how to determine whether the provisional ballot was counted.  The Help America Vote Act further requires that each polling place have an operational voting system that provides minority language accessibility, where required, as well as accessibility for voters with disabilities.  Enforcement of the protections of the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act are a significant priority for the Civil Rights Division.

To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, voters may call the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.  More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting rights laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.justice.gov/crt/voting/index.htm.

 

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://www.justice.gov



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News