LA City Council members seek to add the Armenian language to the city's election materials and ballots, which are already provided in six languages besides English.

The Los Angeles area is home to the largest population of Armenians living in the United States. So it seems appropriate that the city’s election materials should be translated into Armenian. At least this is the view expressed by two members of the city council, one of whom happens to be of Armenian descent.

"The Armenian population in Los Angeles is significant and continues to grow; at last count, there were over 28,000 registered voters of Armenian descent in the City," according to a motion submitted by Council President Herb Wesson and Council Member Paul Krekorian, the first Armenian-American member of the city council.

"As such, the City should consider adding Armenian as a language available on election ballot materials to ensure that the City's Armenian community is given the same consideration that other communities in the City are given."

As required by the federal Voting Rights Act, L.A.'s election materials and ballots are currently translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. U.S. Census data indicates that Hindi and Thai will be added to the next L.A. ballot and Khmer, Cambodia’s official language will also be added to the June 5 primary ballot.

About a quarter of the population of the neighboring city of Glendale is Armenian and the city already includes the language on its election materials and ballots.

Alex Dupont

See Also

• More about translation
  Translation is the act of rewriting a document, changing it into another language. The original language is called the ?source? language. The language into which the source text is translated is called the ?target? language.
• Armenian may be added to official translation list for election ballots by Ruxandra Guidi
  The city council may soon consider including the Armenian language in election ballots in order to service the nearly 30,000 registered voters of Armenian descent in Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Councilmen Seek to Add Armenian Language to Ballot by Zach Behrens
  Two LA City Councilmen want to add the Armenian language to the city's election materials and ballots.