Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is trying to prevent people from getting access to official voting forms – such as voter registration forms, absentee ballot request forms and ballots – in any language other than English. In June, a Polk County District Court judge struck down Iowa’s English-only restriction on voting materials that had been in place since 2008. In a statement issued Wednesday, Bird said she is appealing that ruling, claiming the language restriction is necessary “to protect election integrity.”
The attorney general did not explain in her statement how enforcing the English-only restriction protects election integrity or why providing people who are uncomfortable reading English with election materials in a language they are proficient in is a danger to Iowa elections.
The June ruling came in a legal challenge to the language restriction on voting material led by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Iowa. In October 2021, LULAC filed a lawsuit, seeking a declaratory judgment overturning a 2008 court decision that declared a 2002 Iowa law requiring that “official documents, regulations, orders, transactions, proceedings, programs, meetings, publications, or actions taken or issued [by the state] shall be in the English language.” That law has an exemption for material “necessary to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.” LULAC argued that exemption applies to materials necessary to the right to vote.
In his decision, Judge Scott Rosenberg said the state’s argument that voting materials weren’t covered by that exemption “strains credulity.” He cited the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as Iowa’s well-established history of accommodating the needs of immigrants who were not fluent in English.
“One’s ability to participate in the shared experience of democracy is dependent on effective communication, whether it be amongst voters or between the electorate and the state,” Rosenberg wrote. “Iowa itself has a long history of immigrants, including ones that do not speak English proficiently. In fact, the Constitutional Convention of the State of Iowa in 1857 contemplated such an issue given the large German population in the state at the time. The convention agreed to commission the translation of the Iowa Constitution into German and the printing of 3,000 copies for distribution among the state’s German immigrants.”
The 2002 law in question is the Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act. Gov. Tom Vilsack vetoed the first version of the bill passed by the legislature, but signed a revised version into law.
“I recognize that the bill is not without controversy,” Vilsack, a Democrat who is currently serving as Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture, said at the time. “My hope is that we will look beyond the controversy and put politics behind us so we can focus on our commitments and responsibility to improve education for all our children.”
In 2003, then-Secretary of State (and later governor) Chet Culver interpreted the Constitutional-rights exemption to mean voting materials could be translated into other languages. Under Culver, the Secretary of State’s Office produced voter registration forms in Spanish, Vietnamese, Laotian and Bosnian. Prior to the 2008 election, then-Congressman Steve King sued to stop this.
King had been a member of the Iowa Legislature when the English-only bill was passed, and was an enthusiastic supporter of it. King was joined in his lawsuit by three state senators and four county auditors. One of those auditors was a little-known but ambitious Republican named Joni Ernst.
A Polk County District Court judge sided with King, and issued an injunction ordering the state to stop producing official voting materials in languages other than English. The state did not appeal that decision, even though Culver was governor at that time.
In 2008, when King sued to stop the distribution of non-English language voting materials, Brenna Bird was the congressman’s chief of staff. Working for King was her first job in politics. (Bird does not mention King or the seven years she spent working for him in her biographical sketch on the Iowa Attorney General Office’s site.)
That injunction remained in effect for 15 years, until Rosenberg’s June decision.
Bird appealed, issuing a statement that was just three sentences long.
“We are appealing the District Court’s decision against the Secretary of State’s office to protect election integrity and defend state law. The Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act is clear; all official documents are to be written in English—including voter registration forms. We look forward to arguing our case in court to uphold the Act and secure the integrity of our elections.”
Joe Henry, political director of LULAC of Iowa, told Iowa Capital Dispatch his organization is ready to oppose Bird’s appeal.
“We are determined to fight this,” Henry said. “People have a constitutional right to vote, and language should not be a barrier to voting.”
Henry pointed out the Iowa Department of Transportation provides official documents for people needing a driver’s license in 23 different languages.
“So it’s OK to get informational materials that way to learn how to drive in Iowa, but it’s somehow not OK when it comes to voting,” he said.
The ban on non-English language voting material following Steve King’s court win in 2008 did not cover the entire state. It only applied to 97 of Iowa’s 99 counties. The Latino population in Buena Vista and the Native American population in Tama are large enough for the counties to be individually covered by the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act, so federal law mandated voting material be provided in languages other than English.
There is no evidence that elections in those counties have been any less secure than in the rest of Iowa.
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox.
