Multilingual Requirements for Conducting Elections in Collier County, Florida
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was initially implemented to redress the systematic deprivation of minority voting rights in certain parts of the country. Some of the rights created in this historic legislation apply universally, while other provisions only apply to specific jurisdictions, which are referred to as “covered” jurisdictions.
Congress has provided in the Act well-defined formulas to determine coverage under its provisions. The U.S. Department of Justice is the agency responsible for enforcement of all federal voting requirements.
Collier County is a covered jurisdiction under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. This means Collier County must preclear through the U.S. Department of Justice any change affecting voting prior to its implementation (Section 5), and it must provide language assistance in specified languages (Spanish).
It has been the policy of the Supervisor of Elections to meticulously comply with this and all state and federal voting requirements.
