US Judge orders English ballot printed in Puerto Rico
Source:The Huffington Post
AP/MANUEL ERNESTO RIVERA
August 27, 2008

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered election officials to add an English translation to Spanish-only ballots for November elections.

But the president of the State Elections Commission said it may be impossible to meet a court-ordered deadline for printing the ballots in time for the election.

U.S. Judge José A. Fusté agreed with a lawsuit recently filed by 2 mainland-born Americans living on the island who argued a Spanish-only ballot discriminates against 14% of the nearly 4 million inhabitants in Puerto Rico whose first language is English.

Puerto Ricans vote on Nov. 4 for local officials and a nonvoting member of Congress. They are barred from voting for U.S. president even though they are U.S. citizens.

Bilingual ballots were used by political parties in this year's presidential primaries.

Bilingual ballots are sure to aggravate a small segment of the U.S. territory's population who view them as an attack on the former Spanish colony's cultural identity.

In 2003, Spanish again became the primary official language of Puerto Rico and English was given a secondary role.

Ramón Gómez, president of the State Elections Commission, said it would likely be impossible to prepare the bilingual ballots before Sept. 6 to comply with the Wednesday court order.

Gómez previously said bilingual ballots are not needed in Puerto Rico because it is not a U.S. state.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20080827/puerto-rico-bilingual-ballots/