County Plans to Bypass Law on Bilingual Ballot : Election: Officials say neither time nor money is available to produce Spanish-language versions by November.

Ventura County plans to ignore a pending new federal law requiring local governments this November to provide ballots and voting materials in Spanish to Latinos who speak little or no English, election officials said Thursday.

Bruce Bradley, Ventura County’s assistant registrar, said the county does not have the time or the money to print ballots in Spanish by the fall election--sparking criticism from a Latino congressional candidate and area minority advocates.

He said that unless ordered to by federal officials to comply with the law, Ventura officials plan to post a Spanish-language sample ballot in each polling place and provide bilingual election workers in precincts with heavy Latino concentrations.

But, Bradley said, the county officials are hopeful that by the spring election they can meet the requirements of the legislation--which is expected to be signed into law by President Bush within the next two weeks.

“The November election is too close,” Bradley said. “We have already sent our ballot order in and we are in the process of cutting our budget. For the next election, we will make a major change.”

However, Democratic congressional candidate Anita Perez Ferguson and Latino advocate Marco Antonio Abarca said the county should follow the law as soon as possible.

“This is a fundamental step in getting more people involved in the process,” Perez Ferguson said. “It is falling apart because we don’t have people from all walks of life participating. This presents a new ray of hope.”

Abarca added: “The strength of democracy is determined by including all people in the process. It may cost money to translate some ballots. But if you can bring more people into the system, it’s a good thing.”

The federal legislation, approved by the Senate last Friday, would require counties to supply voting materials for Latino, Asian-American, American Indian and Alaskan minority groups that number 10,000 or more, share a common language, speak little or no English and have a literacy rate below the national average.

Communities that fail to follow the law will be taken to court by the U. S. Justice Department and forced to comply, federal prosecutors say. However, California officials expect the government to give counties a grace period before taking action.

“The mandate takes effect as soon as it is signed, but we have to be realistic about what can and cannot be done,” said Melissa Warren, media director of the California secretary of state’s office.

The 1990 census found that there were 177,000 Latinos living in Ventura County, comprising 26.5% of the population. Whites made up 65.9% of the county’s total 669,016 population. Blacks accounted for 2.2% and Asians 4.9%.

Proponents say voting reform will help bring more ethnic voters to the polls. Opponents say there is no proof that it will, and they also contend that it will reduce incentives for minorities to learn English and plunge into the mainstream of American life.

Both sides, however, agree on one thing: Nowhere will the law have more dramatic repercussions than in pluralistic Southern California.

Under its provisions, Los Angeles County would be the only county in the nation required to print voting materials in six different languages--English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog.

Orange County, meanwhile, would be one of only a few entities across America mandated to provide trilingual assistance--in Spanish, Vietnamese and English.

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Charles Weissburd said the county does not have the “money or the wherewithal” to provide separate voting booths for English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog-speaking voters.

For that reason, Weissburd--without even waiting for the President to sign pending revisions to the 1965 Voting Rights Act--has already fashioned an agreement with local Latino and Asian activist groups to improve language assistance to voters without a sixfold increase in voting booths.

Orange County Registrar Donald F. Tanney said he has already received calls from residents “angry at the whole concept--they strongly believe that election materials should be in English only.”

Tanney’s office will prepare Spanish and Vietnamese language sample ballots this fall at a cost that he estimated would fall somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000. There is not enough time, he added, to translate into three tongues the 340 different ballots prepared for various communities and legislative districts within the county.

Meanwhile, in San Diego County, where the language aid law would mandate assistance in Spanish, Registrar Conny McCormack said she will wait for guidance from the state secretary of state’s office before deciding how to proceed.

“For almost 10 years, we’ve offered a generic sample ballot in Spanish,” she said. “But we routinely get less than 50 requests in each election.”

All six of California’s southernmost counties--Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial included--would be required to provide voting materials in Spanish.

In recent years, Imperial has been the only Southern California county actually required to provide ballots in any language other than English. Under provisions of the current bill, sponsors say, ballots in virtually all bilingual counties will eventually be printed in both English and Spanish.

Los Angeles County will be an exception, they add, because ballots printed in six languages simply would not fit in the voting machines now in use and because there are not enough machines to provide separate ones for balloting in each language.