No Spanish translators available at south side polling site for part of Election Day

Despite Milwaukee’s south side having the highest concentration of Latino voters in the city, no Spanish-speaking poll workers were available at South Division High School polling site until around 1 p.m. on Election Day.

Imelda Montes, 56, walked into South Division High School late Tuesday morning to help her elderly parents cast their ballots. Montes, who was visiting from Mexico and does not speak English, struggled to help her parents register to vote because no poll workers could speak Spanish, she said.

Ruby De Leon, the in-house attorney with Voces de La Frontera Action, was at the polling location as an election observer when she witnessed Montes and her parents struggling to speak to poll workers.

Poll workers provided Montes with Spanish-language material, which the City of Milwaukee is required to have by federal law, but there was no one to help with the questions she had.

Other voters — and at one point, somebody on the phone with Montes — helped translate and navigate her through the process.

“It was a battle, but we did it,” Montes said in Spanish.

Voces de La Frontera stationed election observers at several polling locations in Latino neighborhoods on Election Day to look out for language accessibility issues and possible voter intimidation.

There were several election observers present who wanted to step up and help Montes, but election observers are not allowed to approach voters.

"I would say most people that walked in today spoke Spanish, De Leon said. "A lot of them are bilingual, but those elderly individuals are the ones who we are most worried about not getting the help that they need."

De Leon reported the issue to other members of the group's election protection program and someone was eventually able to reach the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, which sent a bilingual poll worker around 1 p.m. By then, the family was done voting, she said.

"If we wouldn't have called, I don't think anyone would have showed up," De Leon said.

Language barriers did not seem to be an issue in most other polling locations Tuesday.

Montes’ father, Alfonso Montes, 88, said he has voted at South Division before and never had an issue until Tuesday.

“It was just today that they had no one here to help me,” he said. “But eventually someone came.”

Despite fears, voting in Latino neighborhoods mostly smooth

Immigration has been a contentious topic during the election season, causing some advocates to express concern about voter intimidation in Latino neighborhoods.

Jarrett English, political director with Voces de La Frontera, said the organization was prepared for these kinds of situations.

“We have a pretty involved process for voter protection," said English. “We have observers that are at polling locations across the state, specifically locations where there’s going to be Latine folks and people who speak Spanish.”

Recruiting more bilingual poll workers, especially those that speak Spanish and Hmong, has been a goal for the City of Milwaukee.

Paola Rodriguez and Michael Orlowski, volunteers with Forward Together Wisconsin, said they called the election hotline around 11 a.m. Tuesday after a voter told them there weren’t enough Spanish translators at the Allen-Field Elementary School polling place.

Rodriguez said the hotline was able to remind her of laws regarding translators. For example, voters can bring a family member with them who can help translate.

Rafael Garcia, the chief inspector there, said the polling place has three translators and no other issues occurred since.

At South Division, chief election inspector Freddie Franklin, who has worked at the location for 10 years, said he was surprised by the voter turnout on Tuesday, especially the number of first-time voters that showed up to vote.

As of Tuesday evening, he said the location had three Spanish-speaking election workers and at one point had up to five.

At Morgandale School, poll worker Omar Baberena was helping translate for Spanish-speaking voters.

He said he felt encouraged to see so many non-English speakers voting. When the polling station opened in the morning, Barberena said he saw around 60 people already in line.

"There have been a lot of Spanish speakers,” Baberena said. “I’ve used Spanish more today than I have as a poll worker in previous elections."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Some Milwaukee polling sites did not have enough Spanish translators