5/23/2002 - Board of Elections Urged to Reach Out to Poles

Chicago, Illinois—The Chicago Board of Elections learned of the many difficulties that Polish Americans faced when they tried to vote in the March primary election. These difficulties were in spite of an aggressive voter registration and voter information drive sponsored by the Polish American Leadership Initiative, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the greater participation of Polish Americans in the Chicago metropolitan community.

Anna Zolkowski Sobor, voter education chair of PALI, gave her report on voting difficulties to the Board of Elections during its regular May 22, 2002 meeting.

Sobor pointed out that Polish speakers comprise Chicago’s second largest language group, second only to Spanish speakers. Nevertheless, the Board of Elections had only one Polish-speaking staff member answering calls at its office. As the March 19 election approached, that one person was overwhelmed with over 500 calls in four days. According to Sobor, “Polish-American social service agencies, radio hosts and journalists received so many calls prior to the election, from people wanting to know where their polling place was, that they couldn’t do their regular jobs. They answered the phone for days. My own phone number was given out on the air by one radio station by mistake, and I was getting calls until 10 p.m. on Monday, March 18 [the day before the election].”

Sobor recounted that many Polish radio hosts later dedicated shows to their listeners’ experiences on election day. Many were shaken by the experience. She cited reports that Polish speakers experienced harassment and intimidation as they entered their polling places, that sample ballots were illegally distributed inside polling places, leading to confusion as to which ballot was “real,” and that there was a lack of bilingual (Polish-English) election judges and personnel.

Because precinct lines are now being redrawn, Sobor voiced concern over the confusion that is likely when these same Polish-speaking voters have to locate a new polling place in November.

PALI recommended that the Board of Elections, in order to better fulfill its statutory responsibilities to voters, aggressively reach out to the Polish community before the November election. PALI’s recommendations included:

1 Increase the number of Polish-speaking personnel at the Board of Elections able to answer questions of Polish-speaking citizens.

2. Publish Polish language translations of brochures already existing in English and in Spanish that explain the voting process and voters’ rights.

3. Place an insert in the largest Polish-language newspaper of a sample ballot and list of polling places.

4 Conduct voter information seminars in the Polish community in Polish.

5 Aggressively recruit bilingual Polish-speaking election judges through the Polish media.

6 Conduct a voter information campaign in the Polish media.

Chicago Board of Elections Chair Longdon Neal and Executive Director Lance Gough expressed their interest in working with PALI to implement these recommendations and to make voting easier for the Polish American community.

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