Bilingual Voting Assistance:

Costs of and Use During the November 1984 General Election

GGD-86-134BR: Published: Sep 15, 1986. Publicly Released: Oct 1, 1986.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on state and local governments' expenses during the November 1984 general election on language assistance for minority voters.

GAO noted that: (1) 98 percent of the jurisdictions offered minority voters some form of assistance; and (2) Hispanics received the most voting assistance. GAO found that of the state and local governments that responded to its survey: (1) 83 local jurisdictions spent an additional $388,000 to provide oral assistance to minority groups; (2) 39 local jurisdictions spent an additional $30,000 for oral assistance; and (3) 10 states spent approximately $211,000 to provide written or oral assistance directly to voters or to local jurisdictions. GAO also found that, of the local governments that responded to the survey: (1) 80 percent could not estimate the extent to which written assistance was used; (2) 74 percent could not estimate the extent to which oral assistance was used; (3) 26 of the 49 that estimated the use of written assistance said no one used the assistance; (4) 29 of the 62 that estimated the use of oral assistance said no one used it; (5) 69,000 Hispanic voters in Texas received written assistance, while 85,000 received oral assistance; and (6) most of the jurisdictions that commented on the need for oral or written assistance said that such assistance was unnecessary.

Jan 19, 2021

Jan 13, 2021

Dec 16, 2020

Dec 9, 2020

Dec 3, 2020

Nov 30, 2020

Nov 24, 2020

Nov 23, 2020

Nov 18, 2020

Looking for more? Browse all our products here