Pakistani immigrant Zebun Nisa has voted in the last three presidential elections.

Pakistani immigrant Zebun Nisa has voted in the last three presidential elections. But every time she goes to cast her vote, she takes her daughter, who helps her read the instructions and navigate the voting machine for her. Nisa has yet to master the English language.

“I am an American citizen,” she explained to a reporter in her native Urdu, “but the technology is hard to understand.”

For the first time ever, on Election Day this year, she and thousands of South Asian immigrants with limited English proficiency will receive language assistance at the polls. Volunteers who speak Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati will staff more than 90 precincts in the city of Chicago and suburban Cook County, offering language assistance to such voters.

In addition, ballots will be printed in Hindi for the first time. Until now, Chicago-area ballots have been printed only in English, Spanish and Chinese.

The change underscores the rapid growth of the South Asian community in Chicago and its suburbs. The latest U.S. Census showed that South Asians have crossed the numerical threshold that, under the federal Voting Rights Act, requires the state to add language assistance at the polls.

South Asian voters, which include people of Indian, Pakistani, Bengali and Sri Lankan descent in Cook County, are now entitled to receive written and oral language assistance in what election officials refer to as “Asian Indian” languages.

“We take language responsibility very seriously,” said Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections. “We are very proud of our multilingual website and services we provide.”

Voters don’t have to live in the targeted precinct areas to receive the language assistance, he said; any voter in the city of Chicago can request a Hindi mail-in ballot.

Registration applications, ballot applications, ballots, voter forms and web pages will be available in Hindi, and oral language assistance will be available in Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu.

“It’s the federal law,” said Andrew Kang, a senior staff attorney for the nonprofit Asian American Institute, who noted that Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act requires that certain language minority groups located in specific jurisdictions be provided with language assistance in voting.

The legally mandated voting help, he said, is also “recognition of the community’s population growth and is a tremendous opportunity for the community’s political voice to grow.”

The 2010 U.S. Census found approximately 240,000 South Asian Americans living in Illinois, up more than 55 percent from 2000, according to the Chicago-based South Asian American Policy & Research Institute. Of that total, 42,500 South Asians are living in Chicago now, and a whopping 171,000 live in the suburban six-county areas of Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage, and Will.

Of the state’s 240,000 South Asian Americans, SAAPRI said, 155,000 are American citizens, including over 131,000 Indian Americans and 24,000 Pakistani Americans. Until now, however, limited English proficiency has served as a barrier to voting and civic engagement.

SAAPRI Executive Director Ami Gandhi, working out of a North Side Panera Bread outlet for lack of office space, has been working full-time to ensure polling stations are ready for Election Day. SAAPRI and the Asian-American Institute have worked hand-in-hand to make sure people are aware of the help that will be available on Election Day.

The changes represent “an important and exciting opportunity for the South Asian American community and reminds us that all citizens have the right to vote, regardless of English proficiency,” Gandhi said.

Based on the latest Census data, the groups had an opportunity for a trial run in March, during the Primary Election. But the upcoming vote will mark the first full-scale election in which South Asian voters will get language help. In New York City and Los Angeles, some precincts will similarly incorporate South Asian language help for the first time.

“The goal of the federal law is to ensure that voters with limited-English proficiency have access to the electoral franchise,” Langdon Neal, Election Board Chairman, said. “We are very pleased that we were able to receive valuable category_idance and input from our partners in the Asian-Indian community so that we could prepare ballots, voter registration applications and a variety of other election materials in Hindi.”

In addition, the Hamdard Center, a human services resource for the community that caters to senior citizens in the Devon Ave. area, is chipping in to spread the word.

“If you vote, it comes back to you,” Kiran Siddiqui, director of the Hamdard Center, said. “Every single vote counts. It comes back to your neighborhoods, your streets, your roads, streetlights – it’s all related. One vote is significant.”

Nisa and her friend, Razia Sultana, said they are excited for their community.

“Now we know someone will be there to help us. Whoever wants to vote will now be able to vote,” Nisa said.

Sultana, who is not yet an American citizen, plans to vote in the future.

“It’s very important,” she said. “For our identity, and to create our identity, we must vote.”

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=209166