Immigration enforcement, a lack of bilingual poll workers a worry for some San Diego voters

With Election Day on Nov. 3 fast approaching and early voting well underway, many San Diegans are filling out ballots and planning to visit vote centers that open on Saturday. Some may face increased challenges amid a lack of bilingual poll workers and anxiety over immigration enforcement.

The San Diego County Registrar of Voters is so far falling short of some of its goals for hiring bilingual poll workers speaking Vietnamese, Chinese and Filipino for each of the 220 vote centers. Federal law requires language assistance and voting materials to be provided in those languages — and in Spanish, where the county has secured enough fluent poll workers.

While language assistance by phone is available at all vote centers, bilingual poll workers can be key to overcoming language and cultural barriers, some community members said.

Anxiety over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has made some U.S. citizens fearful they could be mistakenly detained by immigration authorities, is another challenge.

The investigative news outlet ProPublica has tallied more than 500 cases of U.S. citizens who have been detained by immigration authorities, sometimes violently.

Immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens have the right to vote in federal elections, just like U.S.-born citizens.

With some voters hesitant to vote in person, many are using drop boxes to vote ahead of Election Day, said Arcela Nuñez-Alvarez, co-director of the immigrant rights group Universidad Popular based in the San Diego area’s North County.

“The sentiment has really trickled into the community that no one is safe,” Nuñez-Alvarez said.

Both federal and state law limit the presence of law enforcement near polling locations. But rumors that the Trump administration could send federal agents there have underscored fears. Trump officials have said that it has no plans to target polling locations this election.

“We want voters to know that voting in San Diego County is safe, secure and accessible,” said Shawn K. Brom, the registrar for the county since January, speaking to inewsource on Wednesday. Brom said his office is working with the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement to respond to “any potential activity.”

Brom added that eligible voters can vote by mail, visit any vote centers in the county or the registrar’s office to cast their ballots and report to his office any incidents involving federal law enforcement.

A spokesperson for the Registrar’s Office said poll workers are trained and “equipped to recognize and appropriately respond to situations that may arise at vote centers.”

Hayne Yoon, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program, does not expect the administration to carry out “some sort of large scale deployment” at vote centers. Yoon said voters “will likely be very safe” and that “voting will proceed as it usually does.”

If there are issues, Yoon said poll workers and civil rights organizations are ready to respond.

“There are a range of folks who are there to protect their rights.”

Lack of bilingual poll workers

The San Diego County Registrar of Voters’ Office exceeded its goal for hiring Spanish-speaking bilingual poll workers, with 237 hired as of Oct. 15.

But based on the numbers from mid-October, most vote centers will lack poll workers speaking Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese, three of the four federally mandated languages. The county had enlisted 57 poll workers speaking Filipino, 36 speaking Chinese and 24 speaking Vietnamese.

For other languages covered under state and local laws, the county has so far hired far fewer.

As of mid-October, the Registrar’s Office has hired only one poll worker each who speaks Somali, Thai and Laotian and none who speak Hmong, Indonesian or Khmer. There are 23 poll workers who speak Arabic, seven who speak Persian, six who speak Hindi and five who speak Japanese.

It’s not the first time San Diego County voting officials have struggled to find bilingual poll workers. inewsource documented the issue in a couple stories around the 2022 election.

Brom said bilingual poll workers will be placed at vote centers based on where voters who speak those languages live and that his office is still hiring for interpreters who can provide one-day assistance at vote centers.

The Registrar’s Office also provides reference ballots and telephonic interpretation in 15 languages — Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Persian, Somali, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese — at every vote center.

Faisa Mohamud, a 28-year-old from City Heights who works for the Somali Bantu Association of America, said her dad has voted in elections for the last 20 years despite not speaking English.

If it weren’t for her mom tagging along to translate, Mohamud said it would be difficult for her dad to cast his ballot.

“Who’s gonna help him?” Mohamud said.

While community members said in-person language assistance is important, there are other challenges to informing new voters who come from different cultures.

“I feel that language barrier is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Tram Lam, the management officer of Little Saigon San Diego.

Lam, who has worked as a Vietnamese-speaking poll worker in several elections and worked at the registrar for more than a decade, said voters in her community also need help understanding the basics of what certain government offices do and how propositions work.

She said the voter guide that voting officials distribute is translated into Vietnamese as well as other languages, but is dense and difficult to read.

Lam also said Vietnamese immigrants come from a culture where citizens are less accustomed to interacting with their government. Many are not used to going to local council meetings, for example.

But, she said, voting is a first step for them becoming more active in American democracy.

“It takes time for people to understand that they can do this,” Lam said.