Under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, eligible non-English speakers in the United States have the right to vote. Some aspects of the law also apply to unions and how they manage their online union election services and union election language requirements.
Translated voting materials, staff with foreign-language capabilities, and voting platforms with multilingual features are essential to ensuring union members with limited English skills understand the issues on the ballot and how to participate in the voting process.
The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in voting, including against those with limited English skills. For example, organizations with large numbers of voters who speak Spanish or Chinese must provide voting materials in those languages to comply with federal law.
The right to vote in union elections is governed by the Voting Rights Act. However, if a group of workers wants to form a new union, that vote is supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.
| Step | Action | Purpose / Benefit |
| 1 | Identify language needs | Survey members to determine preferred voting languages and ensure all communications are accessible |
| 2 | Translate voting materials | Include ballots, instructions, candidate info, motions, and bylaw amendments in members’ languages |
| 3 | Recruit bilingual staff or interpreters | Provide real-time support to answer questions and clarify instructions |
| 4 | Use multilingual voting platforms | Tools like ElectionBuddy automate translations and deliver ballots, notices, and reminders in the voter’s chosen language |
| 5 | Assign preferred languages to voters | Ensures each voter automatically receives all election communications in their selected language |
| 6 | Evaluate and adjust | Review election outcomes and feedback to improve language accessibility in future elections |
Unions must provide members the opportunity to vote in elections or on issues that impact the organizations they belong to. They do this by:
Unions should canvas their members to identify their preferred voting languages. Even better, they should ask new members about their language needs when they first join the union so all communications (not just those about elections and voting) can be delivered in their native tongue.
Supervisors and management are also not allowed to pressure or intimidate workers into voting a certain way.
ElectionBuddy offers Advanced Language Customization, which allows union members to vote in their preferred language. Our easy-to-use platform has a multiple address voting support as well as multilingual voting capabilities. This new advanced feature can translate ballot instructions, questions, choices, verification details, confirmation information, and emailed, messaged, or printed notices into more than fifty languages.
More specifically, ElectionBuddy lets unions:
Accommodating union members with limited English skills must be part of the voting planning process to ensure all voices are heard during an election. When this is done, non-native English speakers will be well-informed about the voting process and will appreciate that the union made an effort to include them.
Removing language as a voting barrier helps unions build and sustain a more engaged membership base that is more inclined to trust the outcome of elections!
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