title
PROPOSED ORDINANCE AMENDMENT
AN AMENDMENT PROTECTING CURRENT ELECTORAL LANGUAGE ACCESS
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED, by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, that Chapter 22 - Elections, Article III - Language Access In Elections, Section 22-37 of the Cook County Code is hereby amended as Follows:
Sec. 22-37. - Policy.
(a) By March 1, 2020, the Office of the Cook County Clerk shall deliver fully translated ballots and voting materials in Korean and Tagalog, in addition to qualified languages required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 U.S.C. § 10503 as the first phase of this program.
(b) By November 1, 2020, and at least every three years thereafter, the Office of the Cook County Clerk or their designee shall review data on limited-English-proficient populations in Cook County and shall determine, in consultation with community leaders of limited-English-proficient populations, each single language that has 10,000 or more limited-English-proficient Cook County residents. The Office of the Cook County Clerk will then provide all translated voting materials in those determined languages in the following elections until and unless it is determined in a future evaluation that the group has fallen below a minimum threshold of 2,000 residents. does not reach that threshold. The Cook County Clerk shall analyze relevant data and shall consult community leaders and organizations to determine prioritized precincts where voting materials shall be provided on Election Day. The Cook County Clerk shall make voting materials available for all qualified languages at all Early Voting sites and "Super Sites."
(c) By February 1, 2021, and at least every three years thereafter, the Office of the Cook County Clerk or their designee shall review data on limited-English-proficient populations in Cook County and shall determine, in consultation with community leaders of limited-English-proficient populations, each single language that has 13,000 or more limited-English-proficient Cook County residents. The Office of the Cook County Clerk will then provide a fully translated ballot, print ballots and all translated voting materials in those determined languages in the following elections until and unless it is determined in a future evaluation that the group has fallen below a minimum threshold of 2,000 residents. does not reach that threshold. The Cook County Clerk shall analyze relevant data and shall consult community leaders and organizations to determine prioritized precincts where fully translated ballots, print ballots and voting materials shall be provided on Election Day. The Office of the Cook County Clerk shall make this determination by referring to the best available data from the United States Census Bureau, the American Community Survey, voter registration and language assistance requests for materials in languages other than English, or other sources the Clerk considers relevant and reliable. The Cook County Clerk shall file a report of this determination per Section 22-39, [Reporting].
(d) For all elections administered by the Office of the Cook County Clerk, the Clerk shall prepare voting materials and a fully translated ballot where applicable, to the extent not already provided by the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State, in languages determined through the process described in Section 22-39, [Reporting] of this Ordinance, in addition to those languages required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 U.S.C. § 10503, and those languages for which Cook County is covered in the Federal Register of Covered Areas for Voting Rights Bilingual Election Materials.
Effective date: This ordinance shall be in effect immediately upon adoption.
end