HOUSTON – One group of translators said they were given a hard time providing their service to Korean-speaking voters at the polls.
Dona Kim is a volunteer translator who for years has helped the Korean community vote at the polls.
"In the past, we've had no problems. We had greeters at the door who would greet mostly seniors who were Korean language speaking who greet them in Korean and tell them what to expect," Kim said. "For many years, the Korean American community has organized to do an early Korean American voting day, and we bring people from our community there by advertising in the newspaper. This year we sent out texts."
Her grandmother, 90-year-old Agnes Kang, said that the translation is sometimes the only way people are able to accurately cast their votes. Her goal?
"To have everybody have a good life," Kang said.
However, Kim and her group say the Korean American community had a difficult time trying to help, saying this year, their student greeters who she said usually gives the procedural rundown of the ballot in Korean were asked by the staff not to talk, Sunday, saying officials at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center were worried they were electioneering.
"Korean seniors came in to vote and they saw these students who were Korean -- so they would bow to them and try to say something in Korean," Kim said. "In Korean culture it is extremely disrespectful not to answer."
However, Kim said the students and anyone associated with them were eventually asked to leave. Also Kim, who had already sworn in and started helping people, said she was asked to leave after she left the building to check on them.
"I went outside and at that point I was not allowed back in," Kim said.
To her group's dismay, eventually the only other Korean translator they had inside left to check on them and was also not let back in once she left the building. Her group of volunteers who had organized the early voting day for the Korean American community were devastated.
"This effectively disenfranchises voters," Kim said.
Special Assistance Harris County Attorney Douglas Ray and the county clerk's office said that each voter has a right to bring in a translator to help them vote. Ray and officials said the issue was that the group was "soliciting" service to those within 100 feet of the electioneering boundary.
"If those folks would say, 'I would like you to accompany me,' [The translators] can go in line with the voters," Ray said.
The group was eventually told they could stay outside but be outside the electioneering boundary, which in this case was near the street. Kim argued that the boundary did not allow them to effectively help people.
"We were jumping up and down, trying to get people's attention," Kim said. "We were just offering a service ... Our community votes Democrat and Republican."
The Harris County Attorney wants to remind voters that they can have a translator if needed.
"If there is nobody there at the polling places, there are many organizations that offer different languages. I know that there is a group that offers the service to Korean voters and they can contact those organizations and have somebody meet them at the polling place and once they meet up at the request of the voters, they can go into the polling place with them and provide those services, and that's true for any language," Ray said.
Kim also argued they were not soliciting, and that they were in compliance with Texas Election Code Sec. 61.003, which prohibits "electioneering" and "loitering."
"We actually deliberately invited our community to come here," Kim said.