Arizona opinion: Arizona counties making it harder to vote in Spanish

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, communities have continued to push for policies that ensure historically excluded groups of voters are able to exercise their freedom to vote easily, accessibly and free from intimidation. In addition to fighting for not just the right, but for the accessibility to the ballot box for Black voters, Native American voters, women and so many others left out of the Constitution, this work has also included providing election resources in languages other than English for naturalized citizens and other voters for whom English may not be their first language.

Unfortunately, however, the decades of hard-won progress are being rolled back, and this year ballots will look different for many Spanish-speaking voters in Arizona.

How is election language determined?

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, as amended in 1975, lays out a formula based on the census survey data every five years to determine which counties are considered covered jurisdictions that are required by federal law to provide translated election material and language access for the applicable language. Historically, the entire state of Arizona was considered a covered jurisdiction for Spanish. Today, under the Section 203 formula, only four counties are considered covered jurisdictions to provide Spanish language translations: Maricopa, Pima, Santa Cruz and Yuma. This is despite the Arizona Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) strongly recommending that non-covered counties continue to provide “language assistance in Spanish, as well as other languages previously required in the county.”

Since 2020, there has been a startling trend of non-covered counties moving to remove Spanish language access by removing the printed Spanish ballot. The 2024 presidential general election brought on a new wave of county removals including Gila and Mohave counties’ board of supervisors voting to remove printed Spanish ballots in the general election to avoid a two-page ballot.

What Arizona counties have changed the available languages on ballots?

Just this April, the Apache County Board voted unanimously to remove the Spanish language translation from printed ballots in the upcoming midterm election. When making these changes, counties often cite expenses in printing longer ballots, wait times for voters, speed and not being required by federal law to provide translations as their reasoning. While both Apache and Gila counties have stated Spanish ballot translations would be available on their Express Vote machine, this would force Spanish-speaking voters to vote in person while 80% of voters in Arizona vote by mail.

Ultimately, this creates two distinct systems in which English-speaking voters have more accessible voting methods, but Spanish-speaking voters must take time out of their workdays, find childcare or otherwise navigate additional barriers to exercise the same right.

Arizona is also home to 22 federally recognized tribes. A majority of counties contain tribal lands. Only five tribal languages (Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Paiute and Pueblo) are covered under Section 203. This leaves language accessibility at the discretion of the election officials of each county. While some counties make efforts in voter access for their respective tribal voters, others do not. Should this trend continue, it’s clear that tribal voters in Arizona may be the next group who could see their already limited access to the ballot shrink even further.

Language access is an essential component for a voter to be able to adequately exercise their right to cast a ballot and make informed decisions while doing so. As voters, we must come together and advocate for better language access policies, not allow for progress to be quietly rolled back. Whether intentional or not, these changes move us backward to a time when many Americans’ fundamental freedom to vote was limited to only White men. If you want to be part of the efforts to push back on these attempts to keep voters from voting, we encourage you to write to your county representatives or attend county meetings and make your voice heard.