June 4, 2012 - Riverside County on the Justice Department's watch list for voter discrimination

Source: mydesert.com
Title: Riverside County on the Justice Department's watch list for voter discrimination
Date: June 4, 2012  
Written by: Desert Sun staff, wire reports

The Justice Department is sending monitors to three California counties to watch for possible voter discrimination during the primary election.

With voters headed to the polls Tuesday, the agency said that it will monitor voting places in Alameda, Fresno and Riverside counties for compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.

The act prohibits discrimination, intimidation or harassment in elections based on race or language.

The federal agency said Monday that Fresno and Riverside counties are required to provide voting assistance in Spanish.

Alameda County is required to provide assistance to Hispanic, Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino voters.

The Justice Department monitored polls in Riverside County during the June 2010 primary as well, making sure voters were given proper language assistance in Spanish. The county had settled a lawsuit with the federal government over that issue earlier that year.

At least 900 of the 2,100 poll workers countywide will provide bilingual assistance, Registrar Kari Verjil told The Desert Sun.

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