ONE HUNDRED SECOND CONGRESS
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington
on Friday, the third day of January,
one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two
An Act
To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965
with respect to bilingual election requirements.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Voting
Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992".
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF LANGUAGE MINORITY
PROVISIONS.
Subsection (b) of section 203 of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973aa-la(b)) is amended to read
as follows:
"(b) BILINGUAL VOTING MATERIALS
REQUIREMENT.—
"(1) GENERALLY.—Before August
6, 2007, no covered State or political subdivision shall provide
voting materials only in the English language.
"(2) COVERED STATES AND POLITICAL
SUBDIVISIONS.—
"(A) GENERALLY.—A State
or political subdivision is a covered State or political subdivision
for the purposes of this subsection if the Director of the Census
determines, based on census data, that—
"(i)(I) more than 5 percent
of the citizens of voting age of such State or political subdivision
are members of a single language minority and are limited-English
proficient;
"(II) more than 10,000 of
the citizens of voting age of such political subdivision are
members of a single language minority and are limited-English
proficient; or
"(III) in the case of a
political subdivision that contains all or any part of an
Indian reservation, more than 5 percent of the American Indian
or Alaska Native citizens of voting age within the Indian
reservation are members of a single language minority and
are limited-English proficient; and
"(ii) the illiteracy rate
of the citizens in the language minority as a group is higher
than the national illiteracy rate.
"(B) EXCEPTION.—The prohibitions
of this subsection do not apply in any political subdivision that
has less than 5 percent voting age limited-English proficient
citizens of each language minority which comprises over 5 percent
of the statewide limited-English proficient population of voting
age citizens, unless the political subdivision is a covered political
subdivision independently from its State.
"(3) DEFINITIONS.—As used
in this section—
"(A) the term 'voting materials'
means registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance,
or other materials or information relating to the electoral process,
including ballots;
"(B) the term 'limited-English
proficient' means unable to speak or understand English adequately
enough to participate in the electoral process;
"(C) the term ‘Indian reservation’
means any area that is an American Indian or Alaska Native area,
as defined by the Census Bureau for the purposes of the 1990 decennial
census;
"(D) the term ‘citizens’
means citizens of the United States; and
"(E) the term ‘illiteracy’
means the failure to complete the 5th primary grade.
"(4) SPECIAL RULE.—The determinations
of the Director of the Census under this subsection shall be effective
upon publication in the Federal Register and shall not be subject
to review in any court.".
Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
Vice President of the United
States and
President of the Senate.
