(Detroit Free Press) Arab American advocates are asking the city of Dearborn to provide more voting information and ballots in Arabic language with the Aug. 3 primary for local races approaching.
After complaints from civil rights advocates, the city added to its website Thursday an absentee voter registration form in Arabic, said Abed Ayoub, legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The city also has had a voter registration application in Arabic on its website.
But Ayoub and others say that while the move this week is welcomed, it falls short of what is needed to ensure the city is offering Arab Americans equal access to voting. Activists said the city still doesn’t have Arabic-language ballots, Arabic-language options on its website to alert non-English speakers to the forms, and there is no drop-off box or satellite location in the eastern part of the city, which has sizable numbers of Arab Americans.
