I feel like Texas needs a sign similar to the “X many days since a workplace accident” that says “X many days since a racist incident initiated by a public official.” We had a good half year since Betty Brown in April and Leo Berman before that. This time, the assistant director of the Elections Divison of the Secretary of State’s office was conducting a training for county chairs of both the Democratic and Republican parties for operating the primary elections coming up in March. The assistant director’s advice for handling voters who do not speak English was literally to yell slowly. And that’s not the worst part. Many of those in attendance didn’t find anything wrong with the assistant director’s suggestion:
I had the pleasure (???) of attending the seminar this past weekend and being in the room when Melinda made these comments. It was just surreal how half of the room didn’t even notice there was anything wrong with her story and the other half was just in shock.
Later in the day a Republican county chair from west Texas, who I had been pleasantly chatting with all day, was just shocked when another county chair suggested he may need an election worker versed in Vietnamese or Mandarin. My Republican colleague asked me “you mean they speak Mandarin but are American citizens?” She really had no idea.
Maybe the signs should also shout apologies in several languages.
- Justin Gillenwater
