Banning bilingual ballots

This would be interesting.

WASHINGTON - A group of House Republicans wants to do away with bilingual ballots and translation assistance at the polls, a reflection of how tensions over immigration are pervading other issues.

As Congress readies to reauthorize the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the lawmakers are lobbying their colleagues to let the act’s language assistance provisions expire.

The 56 lawmakers support the act but say the language assistance to voters — provided throughout much of California — undermines national unity, increases the risk of election fraud and puts an undue burden on state and local governments.

I'd have to read the Act to know the details, but here are my thoughts. I don't like the fact that this Act requires specific jurisdictions to provide bilingual ballots. If those jurisdictions choose to do so, that's their prerogative, but it's not the federal government's job to force them to. That leads to my second thought: this Act should not eliminate the states' ability to make their own laws regarding bilingual ballots. It's not the federal government's job to regulate the states in this arena.

But, those are just my two cents.