Multilingual ballot design – Comparative overview – CEO Appearance on the study on Indigenous languages on ballots before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs
Background
International, Provincial and Territorial Relations Division (IPTR) has prepared this note to facilitate discussion on providing ballot papers in multiple languages in Canada.
This document provides a comparative overview of multilingual ballot design and the experiences in selected jurisdictions with providing ballots and related election materials in multiple languages.
Overview
Most countries provide ballots only in their official language(s); in the majority of countries means only a single language.
Some officially bi/multilingual countries use ballot papers in multiple languages, either printing multiple languages on the same paper or providing separate ballot papers for each official language.
Designing multilingual ballots has been recognized as challenging; in some countries this is mitigated through the use of electronic voting machines, symbols, and pictures.
The USA has perhaps the most expansive legal requirement for providing multilingual ballots. Under certain conditions, jurisdictions are required to provide ballots in multiple languages.
In 2007, the US federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) issued guidelines on developing effective voting materials, including ballots. The EAC recommended that one language be used per ballot when using a digital interface and no more than two languages simultaneously on paper. They also noted the importance of hiring translation and cultural experts to ensure quality.
A 2017 report from the Center for Civic Design noted that there is little research on effective ballot design in multiple languages beyond the EAC guidelines. The report highlights key challenges as: ensuring community awareness and buy-in, providing quality translations in case of dialects, fitting multiple languages within a limited space, and treating languages equally.
Examples from other jurisdictions
Nunavut
Nunavut's Official Language Act stipulates that the Inuit language (Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun), English, and French are the official languages of the territory.
Election Nunavut provides all election information materials in all official languages of Nunavut as required by subsection 5(2) of the Nunavut Elections Act.
Section 6 of the Nunavut Elections Act stipulates that election officers should be appointed to represent the languages spoken in the community in which they will be performing their functions. It also stipulates that where a deputy returning officer or poll clerk does not understand the language spoken by a voter, an interpreter shall be appointed.
The Inuit language is not a standardized language, neither in spoken nor in written forms.
Elections Nunavut asks candidates (on the declaration of candidacy) to provide how their name should appear on the ballot in two languages, which can include given name initials and/or commonly used nicknames. Candidates are also encouraged to provide their name in the Inuktut used in their community (Inuktitut syllabics in all communities except Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay).
The order in which candidates write their name in two languages on the declaration of candidacy is the order in which it will appear on the ballot.
Elections Nunavut is not responsible for transliterating candidates' names into syllabics on their ballots.
As there are no territorial political parties in Nunavut, ballot papers only list candidates' names as provided by the candidates in no more than two languages.
Applications and instructions for special ballot are also available in all official languages of Nunavut.
All election material, including ballots, that are available in English must also be made available in minority languages for specific, covered jurisdictions.
Due to the decentralized electoral system, multilingual ballot and language service provisions vary considerably between local jurisdictions (state, county, municipal-level) responsible for elections.
Examples of different practices include:
Sample/facsimile ballots in applicable languages, provided directly to voters and/or printed and posted in polling places to use as a reference when casting ballots in English or other official languages.
Fully translated ballot papers; ballot papers are sometimes printed separately for each language, or have multiple languages (two, three, four) printed on the same paper.
Different jurisdictions employ any combination of these options, for example Los Angeles County offers facsimile ballots, fully translated official ballot papers, and interpretation at polling places.
Experiences with Native American and Alaskan Native languages
The Act also notes the importance of providing oral voter assistance, especially in cases of historically unwritten Native American languages.
New Mexico established a Native American Election Information Program to ensure compliance with the law by giving technical support to local jurisdictions, providing oral assistance, conducting voter education, and communicating with Native American voters on the electoral process.
Alaska's Division of Elections has created a language assistance plan to guide the provision of translated election materials for languages that are historically written and oral language assistance for Alaska Native languages which are historically unwritten.
Selected counties also provide fully translated facsimile ballot papers in Native Alaska languages including Central Yup'ik, and other minority languages such as Tagalog. These are printed and provided digitally, as reference when using an English language ballot.
Sample/facsimile ballots are printed separately, with only one language appearing on the ballot.
Audio ballots/assistance is available in Indigenous languages for use with voting machines.
The US Commission on Civil Rights produced an in-depth 2019 report on Native Alaska voting rights, including analysis of language assistance, translation efforts, and the impact of vote-by-mail on Native Alaska communities.
South Africa
There are 11 official languages in South Africa, with English used as the main language of government.
Voter information is available in all eleven languages but ballot papers are not multilingual; Section 68 of the Electoral Act empowers the Independent Electoral Commission to determine in which language ballots are printed.
Ballot papers include the full name of each party in English, the party logo, acronym, and a picture of the party leader.
Hindi is the official language of the state in India, with English as a "subsidiary official language," and 22 scheduled languages recognized by the Constitution.
Individual States can specify their own official language(s) through legislation.
Since 1998, India has used handheld electronic voting machines (EVMs), rather than printed paper ballots.
Casting a ballot through an EVM is done through a column of buttons on the machine which correspond to a printed list of candidates pasted onto the machine for each constituency.
This printed list includes the candidate name and corresponding symbol of the candidate's party.
Voters press the button aligned to the candidate of their choice. A receipt with a symbol is issued to assure the voter that their vote matched their choice.
The Election Commission of India is responsible for determining in which language to print the list of candidates and the symbols for each party.
The determination on printed languages is based on the majority languages and scripts of each constituency, though ballots often include English and Hindi in addition to any local language.
United Kingdom
Bilingual election materials, including ballot papers, are required in Wales under the 1993 Welsh Language Act.
In 2017 bilingual ballots in Welsh and English were implemented for local elections, later expanded to a range of elections in Wales, including the Welsh Parliament and police commissioners.
The UK Election Commission established the Welsh Language Advisory Group in 2017 to bring election legislation, guidance, and materials in line with legal obligations.