Armenian Media Group of America (AMGA) reports that on August 1 the city council of Los Angeles has decided to process an approach to include Armenian, Russian and Persian as official languages in the city’s elections materials.
Though the ballots will not be in these languages yet as it demands extra money, the city will turn to different communities to find such workers for the elections who speak these languages and will give information about elections in these languages.
Asbarez writes that Los Angeles is home to the most Armenian-Americans in the country and about 30,000 are registered to vote in the city. Armenian is the third most commonly spoken language in Los Angeles but not one of the six languages now included on election materials.
“Throughout our history, America has been defined by its commitment to the right to vote, and it has been forged by the ongoing struggle to expand participation in democracy,” Councilmember Paul Krekorian said.
The representative of the City Hall June Legmei reported that the program will start in 2015.. The member of the council Erik Garseti added in his turn that LA can increase the number of the voters by providing information in different languages: “In the last elections we noticed that we can increase the participation by 2000 Armenian speaking voters” , he said.
