City officials were wise to settle lawsuit

It’s good to see that city officials decided to quickly settle a recent lawsuit regarding translations for election ballots.
Several weeks ago, a Hamtramck voter filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the city of failing to use the correct dialect in the translations of ballots into the Bangladeshi language.
For some reason the lawsuit did not include the Michigan Secretary of State Office, which handles all election-related translations.
The problem in the past, we’ve been told, is that there was never a consensus among the Bengali community over which dialect to use.
Now, however, the issue can finally be decided.
But we have a nagging feeling that not everyone is going to be satisfied.
The point here, though, is that the city did not stand in the way of finding a method for settling the matter once and for all – no matter who may still not be pleased.
The lawsuit also noted that the city failed to provide enough Bengali translators on election day. The problem there is that it is hard to find election workers, who often have to put in 12 hours or longer on election day.
That is a tough order for a city this small.
No matter, the city is moving forward, and the lawsuit is now behind us.
Posted July 16, 2021

One Response to City officials were wise to settle lawsuit

  1. Mark M. Koroi

    July 18, 2021 at 7:29 pm

    First and foremost, the city did the right thing in resolving this lawsuit ASAP instead of fighting it for years in the federal court system and expend oodles of municipal funds in attorney fees – as it has in recent years in other civil rights litigation.

    Secondly, the lawsuit indicated the city did not respond to a letter sent out months earlier to address these alleged electoral deficiencies – resulting in the embarrassment of legal action extensively covered in the media.

    Thirdly, the electorate has a enforceable right that Voting Rights Act compliance will occur – regardless of difficulties that the city may have with the performance of its legal obligations thereunder.

    The settlement is a win-win situation for all.

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