South Dakota non-profit provides ballots in five different languages

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A local non-profit is taking a big step to encourage voting for legal immigrants across the state.

Dakota News Now spoke with the CEO of South Dakota Voices for Peace on how translated ballots can encourage voter participation.

Taneeza Islam said pushing out translated ballots to the immigrant community, which is prominent in Sioux Falls, is essential.

After a low turnout across the board in June’s primaries, Islam wants to ensure that all communities are reached out to.

So, with the help of four translators, Voices for Peace has provided ballots in Amharic, Arabic, Spanish, and Nepali.

These translations, including the English ballot, can be found on Voices for Peace’s website.

“Sioux Falls specifically and South Dakota in general is growing because of multi-lingual communities immigrating into our communities and so it becomes incumbent on city services, social services to make their information accessible to these different languages,” Islam said.

Additionally, over 20,000 sample ballots will be mailed across Minnehaha and Yankton counties.

Islam said Voices for Peace used Census data, as well as data from the Sioux Falls School District, to determine how many ballots would need to be mailed out.

“Our state and our city are very data-deficient when it comes to multi-lingual households and our multi-lingual communities in general,” Islam said.

Islam hopes that this push of ballots, just 12 days away from Election Day, will create more voter efficacy in these communities.

“We hope it starts the intrigue amongst our multilingual communities who have otherwise not been engaged in the political process in the state,” Islam said.

Many of these ballots will be delivered starting this weekend.

Islam also pointed out that you are allowed to bring sample ballots to the voting booths, and you can also bring a translator, but the translator cannot tell you how to vote.

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