So I received my voter guide in the mail. The English version has Spanish in the back and a separate Korean version came with it. Notice there is a message on the front asking the reader to mail back a postage paid postcard to opt out of future Korean mailings. So they are wasting money mailing it to us and then wasting more money paying for us to respond. Also, shouldn't there be a similar message in Spanish?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
How the Campaign Finance Board wastes our money
So I received my voter guide in the mail. The English version has Spanish in the back and a separate Korean version came with it. Notice there is a message on the front asking the reader to mail back a postage paid postcard to opt out of future Korean mailings. So they are wasting money mailing it to us and then wasting more money paying for us to respond. Also, shouldn't there be a similar message in Spanish?
21 comments:
Wait till you work as an election inspector and you have to spend 20 minutes trying to pantomine an explanation to a Korean-speaking Republican voter why she cannot vote in the Democratic primary. What joy!
Why did the people of my father's generation have to have basic English proficiency and a job before coming over. Today's crew needs neither.
You need to be able to read and speak English in order to become a citizen and you need to be a citizen in order to vote. So why all the translation?
Anonymous # 2 says all there is to say.
Why are we accommodating people who are too lazy or too stupid or too arrogant to obey the law?
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I'm the son of an immigrant, the husband of the daughter of an immigrant. We all speak English. I even write in English.
Tweeding at its finest.
I days of yore, non-English speaking immigrants were aided by their fellow countrymen through privately-financed fraternal organizations. That's why you had ethnic newspapers: the Staats-Zeitung, Il Progresso, etc.
This babel of government-sponsored language "assistance" is getting out of hand.
Make English the official language.
Enuf is enuf!
I thought you needed to know English to become a citizen and then vote. Something is very wrong here. Take the money for translation services and give all these people English lessons in the library. If they still can't comprehend the language, then they shouldn't vote. This is such a waste of our taxpayer dollars.
"So why all the translation?"
Because multi-culti-loving Bill Clinton made it a Civil Right to have gov't business translated into whatever language you chose to use. Whether you're a citizen or not.
I got these books for the primary & thought the Chinese/Korean book was delivered by mistake, but it was addressed to me w/an explanation that Census data showed I lived in a heavily Asian community. Kew Gardens Hills??? Besides being a waste of money for the English/Spanish one, I had to mail back the card to opt out of the Chinese/Korean version. Why not just put it up on the web, & have print versions for people w/o internet in the library or some other central locale in as many languages as they want. English not spoken here anymore.
Language aside, why didn't I receive this mailing before the primaries? It had information on candidates who were no longer in any race. Idiotic.
THIS CAME FROM CAMPAIGN FINANCE NOT THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS!!!!
BOE IS A STATE CONTROLLED CITY AGENCY AND CFB IS CONTROLLED NY THE MAYOR
Multi language services create jobs so there is some very small good in this.
Multi language services create jobs so there is some very small good in this.
no, the jobs it creates are for illegal aliens.
I work for the NYC Campaign Finance Board. ALL OF THE MAILING IS DONE FROM THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS LIST. You should be angry with them. Blame these people for not doing their jobs. There is also a federal law that states that you have to supply the guides in other languages. Read your guide and all of this information is in there. Stop blaming us and read it for yourself.
Wow, people. Multiculturalism is the worst thing that's happened to our city?
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, KIDS. WE’RE GOING TO BE LIVING HERE FOR A WHILE. PEOPLE MIGHT NOT SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE AS YOU.
In case you were wondering, you're massively racist. "Oh, European immigrants knew English before they got here." No, they didn't. Are you kidding? And yes, they were citizens. But when non-white groups do it, you've all got your panties in a twist. Give me a break. Your racism is showing. You don't think America is changing for the worse because fewer people speak English, because English isn't the official language - you think America is changing for the worse because there's a smaller proportion of white people.
You're right. White immigrants do not speak English when they come here either. The real difference between immigrants of old and new immigrants is that immigrants of old didn't come here with their hands out and generally tried to blend in and adapt instead of displaying disgusting behaviors. And this goes for all of the new generation of immigrants, not just non-whites.
When the new generation of immigrants IS primarily non-white, and when you say stuff like, "generally tried to blend in and adapt instead of displaying disgusting behaviors," you'll excuse me for continuing to think that you're incredibly racist.
I really don't care what you think.
Those of us that live in reality realize that huge mobs invading parks on the weekends, throwing parties and leaving all their crap behind for someone else to clean up, blasting Spanish music at 2am from cars or illegal apartments, living in said apartments in shifts, drinking and pissing in public while you wait for a guy with a truck to pick you up, shooting snot out your nose and spitting on public sidewalks, etc., etc., was not practiced by previous generations of immigrants and I don't see why those of us already here should be expected to tolerate it because this group of immigrants that does do these things happens to have a darker shade of skin.
That's interesting. I was responding to people who were angry about the fact that some people in their neighborhoods don't speak English. You jumped to "people who don't speak English" being the source of all the problems you listed.
Cos apparently white people never blast their music obnoxiously, pee in public, have loud parties and fail to clean up after themselves, or. . . drive trucks?
I have seen white people doing all those things, on a regular basis (well, I don't see people peeing on a regular basis). I'm not sure why you brought them up when the discussion was non-English-speakers, and I'm not sure why you think the only people doing those things are people with "darker skin" than you.
I would suggest that when you see behaviors that conform to your stereotypes of others, those behaviors register with you. When you see behavior that does not match your stereotypes of how people would behave, you consider it a one-time thing. I also would suggest that you think a little about why you made the connection between "doesn't speak English" to "is a horrible neighbor." Because it sounds to me like you assume anyone who isn't a white, native English speaker is of the type you describe, and that's really, really unpleasant.
This post is about paying for a service to people who don't speak English. You are the one who strayed off topic by bringing up race.
The people doing these things in my neighborhood are primarily non-natives. Previous generations did not exhibit the behaviors that the people from the 3rd world countries tend to. It's not racist to point out that people from these countries have lower standards of cleanliness and living. It's therefore no surprise that they are bringing it here. You want to pretend that all immigrants of all generations are the same, go ahead and delude yourself.
I said they come in all colors, including white. YOU are the one who said the new immigrants were primarily non-white.
I still don't understand why we would need to pay to translate voting material when all immigrants who become citizens have passed a test requiring them to speak and read English.
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