BILL NUMBER: S441
SPONSOR: MYRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to including speakers of
Haitian Creole as language minorities
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill adds speakers of Haitian Creole and people of
Middle Eastern or North African heritage to the groups of people
protected by the New York Voting Rights Act's language provisions.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York included protections for
language minorities as one of its key provisions. These protections
involve ensuring voting materials in a non-English language if there are
a sufficient number of speakers of that language in various jurisdic-
tions. Adding speakers of Haitian Creole to the definition of language
minority group" will also make these speakers and New Yorkers of Middle
Eastern protected classes under the law and therefore eligible to chal-
lenge vote suppression or dilution based on this status in court.
This bill will help protect the voting rights of speakers of Haitian
Creole in New York State.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S441: 17-204 election law, 17-204(5-a) election law