Lost in Translation? An Analysis of New Jersey’s Implementation of the Language Assistance Mandate Under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act

Abstract

For the millions of Americans who are deemed as limited English proficient (LEP) and speak a minority language, access to the ballot box is centrally governed by the Section 203 language assistance mandate. Enshrined in the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, this mandate directs certain qualifying jurisdictions to provide language assistance, both written and oral, in all aspects of the voting process. Despite the expansive nature of this mandate, literature fails to adequately consider the implementation processes behind it, though it has been preliminary suggested that variations in implementation are largely tied to high-level factors, such as a state’s governing party. This thesis seeks to complicate this idea and expand the literature through a novel, in-depth case study assessment of Section 203 implementation. To do so, it focuses on the eight counties in New Jersey that are covered by this mandate and asks the following: (1) To what extent and in what ways did covered counties in New Jersey provide comprehensive Section 203 language assistance, as it relates to the November 2025 General Election? (2) What are some of the implementation practices and factors involved in administering bilingual language assistance programs for voting in New Jersey? (3) How can New Jersey further enhance language assistance for voters? New Jersey also contains a narrower state-level Spanish language assistance mandate that has existed since 1974, so this thesis reveals the way local authorities navigate the two in tandem. I conduct two investigations. The first, which answers Question 1, uses an original dataset of language assistance records constructed through systematic public records requests filed with all eight counties to analyze the extent of comprehensive language assistance. Additionally, I obtained data on bilingual poll workers assignments and analyzed how well counties “targeted” their poll worker assignments to certain districts, relative to what federal guidelines advise. Ultimately, I find that, despite all eight counties sharing the same partisan leadership and legal mandates, there are significant variations in the extent to which counties provide comprehensive language assistance—revealing the central role of administrative discretion in this implementation. Notable gaps across counties include a mixture of translated and untranslated signage and a failure to mention language assistance in poll worker manuals. The targeting analysis also indicates a mismatch in most counties between where bilingual poll workers are placed and where language needs are, as counties rely on the state law to target instead. The second investigation, answering Questions 2 and 3, features in-depth qualitative research by leveraging 30 semi-structured interviews with New Jersey local election officials (LEOs), policy advocates, and non-New Jersey LEOs, to gain further insight on the practices and factors behind Section 203 implementation in New Jersey and what can be done to strengthen it. Most notably, findings reveal that the majority of New Jersey LEOs misunderstand the federal Section 203 mandate and incorrectly conflate it with the existing state law—signaling the tension of having parallel mandates without clear implementation guidance. Findings also reveal that there is no one “set” of practices for implementing Section 203, as they significantly diverge across counties. The main factors counties reported considering during implementation were administrative (staffing) capacity, technological capacity, cost, relationships with other governments, and routinization, while the main challenges are funding, the recruitment and management of bilingual poll workers, and designing multilingual paper ballots. Advocates reveal that New Jersey LEP voters have faced language issues in the past and stakeholders recommend strengthening New Jersey language assistance through more robust poll worker training, formal community collaborations, and strengthened implementation guidance, among others. This thesis concludes by proposing recommendations for the State of New Jersey and its jurisdictions to strengthen language assistance in service of this vibrant multi-racial democracy.