Below find part of a presentation on Voting in Your Language rights, where they discuss the rights of New Yorkers for whom English is not a native language. You can bring an interpreter or go to special locations to get language-related assistance. A complete transcript of the entire discussion is below the announcement, A complete slideshow of the presentation used in the initial meeting can be found starting at atbout 53:20:
From the toolkit:
The June Primary Election is approaching! Early Voting starts Saturday, June 13, and ends Sunday, June 21. Election Day is Tuesday, June 23.
In New York City, voters have the right to bring an interpreter with them to the voting booth! The NYC Civic Engagement Commission will be providing interpretation services in select languages at 100 poll sites on Election Day, and 50 poll sites on the last two days of Early Voting, June 20 and 21.
Information about voting rights and CEC’s voter interpretation, including the list of poll sites covered, is available in 13 languages at on.nyc.gov/vla.
The original announcement for the Media Roundtable, portions of which are in the above video, is below:
The New York City Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) and Campaign Finance Board (CFB) will host a media roundtable to discuss the June Primary Election and ongoing civic engagement opportunities. This event will take place in-person on Wednesday, June 10 at 1 p.m. (see invite below).
The CEC and CFB will discuss voter rights for New Yorkers in the upcoming election to further inform residents on what the processes are and what they can do to make their voting easier, including the right to vote in your own language.
NEW YORK— The New York City Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) and Campaign Finance Board (CFB) will host an ethnic and community media roundtable to discuss the June primary election, and ongoing civic engagement opportunities. This event will take place in-person on Wednesday, June 10 at 1 p.m.
In the June primary election, New York City voters will see on their ballot races for Governor, Lt. Governor, State Assembly, and U.S. House of Representatives. Some voters, depending on where they live and their political party, may see races related to surrogate and other court positions. Key dates:
● Early Voting: Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, June 21, 2026
● Election Day: Tuesday, June 23, 2026
The CEC will provide information on their Voter Language Assistance program and partnerships with community organizations to educate language communities on voter rights. The CEC provides language interpretation services in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, Greek, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Urdu, and Yiddish at select poll sites. CEC interpretation services will be offered over the last three days of the Early Voting period and on Election Day.
The CEC and CFB will discuss voter rights for New Yorkers in the upcoming election to further inform residents on what the processes are and what they can do to make their voting easier, including the right to vote in your own language.
The following were in attendance at the roundtable:
- Dr. Sarah Sayeed, Chair, CEC
- Anila Cobo, Director of Voter Language Assistance, CEC
- Olivia Nunez, Director of Partnerships & Outreach, CFB
- Jorwell Perez, Director of Public Affairs, CEC\
Below is the complete transcript of the event provided by the Civic Engagment Commission:
Ethnic media roundtable w CFB, BOE-20260610_131911-Meeting Transcript
June 10, 2026, 5:19PM
1h 0m 54s
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) started transcription
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 0:03
New Yorkers make up one in four residents in New York City.
We’ve slowly grown our voter language assistance program over the years to try to capture and provide services to more healthy voters.
Additionally, we have tried to make our efforts more efficient and also we have.
Increase our taxes to reach out to language communities that we serve directly or in partnership with the with community organizations that are direct service providers in these communities, so.
For those who are not familiar with the voter Language assistance program, I’m, I’m just going to give you a quick overview, but as Doctor said mentioned it is a Charter mandated program.
So when the city charter Commission
Came in to existence through the ballot measure approved by the New Yorkers. Also the voter Language Assistance Program was established.
This was charter mandated.
As many of you may know, New Yorkers have the right to bring interpreters.
With them to the polls, the board of election also does provide services that are covered under the federal Voting Rights Act and more recently, under the New York State, John R Lewis Voting Rights Act, while the voter Language Assistance Program operates under local law 30 in the Charter, as well as additional provisions at the city level.
So we do not duplicate board of Election services. We provide services for other Community language communities that are not covered by the board of election.
Sorry to interrupt you there.
Having trouble with your audio?
I think we should just pause in troubleshoot. I’m not sure.
What’s going on in or is this the audio?
Yeah, ’cause, The thing is for you, OK.
Is it better now?
Thumbs up.
Thumbs down.
OK, perfect.
OK, as I was saying, for those of you who are new to our efforts to expand language access to a language communities in New York City, I was explaining a little bit about what language access.
Measures and assistance exists right now in New York City.
First of all, New Yorkers have the right to bring an interpreter of their choice to the polls.
It can be anyone except for a Union representative or a supervisor.
Secondly, the board of election as Doctor Sed mentioned provides voter interpretation services.
Under the federal Voting Rights Act, primarily for Spanish and and Asian languages and more recently based on the New York John R Lewis.
Voting Rights Act.
On the other hand, the voter Language Assistance program operates at the city level and expands language access for language communities.
Top language communities that in jurisdictions that are not covered by the Board of Elections and the federal and the New York State legislation. So we currently provide services in 13 languages Albanian, Arabic, Bangla, Chinese.
These French Haitian Creole, Greek, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Urdu and Yiddish. Now Albanian and Greek, are in red here because they were just recently added to our language offerings. Our Commissioners voted on April 30th to add those two languages.
Due to the so outside of the language that we were already providing services, Albanian and Greek well.
the opinion in that order represent the highest count of citizen of voting age with limited English proficiency that speak those two languages.
So these two were added based on the data.
Some of the Arabic language that you see listed here, like Chinese, we do not provide Chinese services across New York City because as I mentioned earlier, the board of election provides Asian.
As services in Asia, languages based on the federal and state legislation. So as of now we only offer Chinese services in the Bronx.
And there are different jurisdictions, different exclusions, right for the Asian languages that you see here, including Urdu.
Korean and and Chinese as I just explained and Bangla.
We operate based on a methodology that relies on American Community Survey data.
So the pie chart that you’re seeing at the moment?
Is a representation of the percent share of services that each of the language community is covered by the program received out of the total of services that we can afford to provide with our resources. So.
You’ll see.
Russian 39% Russian will get 39% of our services because.
Russian speaking citizen or voting age with limited English proficiency, they make up 39% of the total universe of citizen voting age with limited English proficiency that are eligible for our services.
In contrast, you’ll see Chinese percent share at 1%.
And that is because Chinese, as I just mentioned, Chinese speaking citizens that are eligible for our services are only those that live in the Bronx and they are.
They are only about 2000 right now, so that 2000 is only like 1% of 200,000+ that are eligible for our services in the jurisdictions that we’re allowed to provide services.
So that was a little bit of context.
Like, how do we operate?
How do we decide to allocate services for each language community?
From November 2019, we have provided voter interpretation services for over 10,700 voters with limited English proficiency and many more have received general assistance because our teams, our interpreters, are there at the poll sites, and even though people may not need help with interpretation.
Or language they may need other assistance.
So a lot more, many more people have been assisted by our interpreters.
For the June primary services, we’re scaling up for the June primary.
Oh, I’m sorry.
Looks like you’re you have an outdated version there.
Just gotta refresh. Thank you.
Yeah.
OK so.
You may all know that the early voting early voting is kicking off this Friday. I’m sorry.
Saturday, June 13.
It’s running through June 21st, Sunday, June 21st. Election Day is June 23rd.
There are several deadlines that are tied to these primary.
June 13, the board of election must have received the voter registration form.
Submitted either online.
Or by mail. The same deadline is.
Valid for.
The Board of Elections Web received absentee mail or online ballots.
I’m sorry. A request submitted by mail or online and June 22nd is the last day for people to apply in person in the board of Election Office to get an absentee ballot. June 23rd is Election Day.
And it’s also the last day for those who ask for an absentee ballot to either postmark it.
So drop it in the post office and make sure it gets postmarked. Or drop it off in person at a poll site in their borough.
In terms of our services.
We will kick off early voting services June 19th with Yiddish early voting services only. So because of Shabbat we provide yidish early voting services.
The last Friday and Sunday of the early voting period and then on June 20th and 21st, we’ll be at 50 poll sites covering all the other languages. We’ll be at 50 polls as I just mentioned.
And about half of those poll sites will have interpreters in at least 2 languages. So.
We’ll be providing a total of 86 language services at 50 poll sites, 50 early voting poll sites on Election Day. We will have interpreters at 100 poll sites.
Three of those poll sites will have two language services, so the total of language services is 103 Election Day, as you know, is a. It’s a long day for interpreters and for board of election workers.
So our teams, our interpreters, operate in teams of two on early voting, it’s usually.
One interpreter per language at each poll site, and the people that just in the picture, they’re not.
Professional interpreters. They are bilingual community members, so we work with our vendor to hire bilingual community members to serve as interpreters.
They always recruit ahead of every election. In fact, right now they’re still recruiting for.
Some of the languages. So you’re welcome to share that information out in your in your report.
And yeah.
Some of these people don’t want to become professional interpreters and and work with them with translation interpretation companies.
This is a breakdown of services by borough and language for early voting, so you’ll see there are 86 the total. The grand total is 86. There across the five boroughs.
In terms of distribution of language services for borough.
So we have nine in the Bronx, 41 in Brooklyn, because that’s where the concentration of our you know, that’s where the poll sites for the highest concentration of the languages that we cover in cdleeps are. So 41 in Brooklyn, 27 in Queens and 9:00.
Excuse me on Staten Island.
You’ll see some gaps there, for example Bengali.
There’s zero in Brooklyn, Queens. There’s staten island.
And that’s because one Bangla is covered by the board of election in in Queens.
And Brooklyn. And then there’s no concentration of Bangla speakers on Staten Island.
So that’s why you see zero for Staten Island.
But we do have a concentration of bangla services and bangla speakers in the Bronx.
So that’s why you’ll see two in the Bronx.
This next table represent a breakdown of services.
Election Day services by borough and language. So you’ll see the grand total is 103 language services.
You’ll see Albanian and Greek, which are our new languages.
There’s 3 poll sites in the in the Bronx that we’re covering with Albanian and and four in Queens, Astoria, Queens, that we’re we’re providing.
Greek again, we are picking the poll sites based on the data where the data tells us that the highest concentration of speakers of these languages with limited English proficiency are right.
And then we have the financial resources constraints, right?
We cannot be everywhere. Our budget has not changed over the years.
It’s remained the same.
Sometimes we also have had to take a little bit of some, some.
You know pots and pans.
How? How they’re holding city government. So we’ve we’re trying our best to.
Serve the most uh, the highest number of uh LLP voters possible with the resources that we have available.
This map is just it’s a Google map.
It’s the representation of our, you know, the where the poll sites are.
We’re also going to share with you the digital toolkit, the link itself.
So you also can can just like go in and get that information directly online, but you’ll see we have.
A major concentration of poll sites and in south Brooklyn and South Central Brooklyn.
And then some poll sites in northern Brooklyn. A few.
A few in in the Bronx and the rest of Queens. And then.
Yeah, still a few on Staten Island.
So Brooklyn is heavily LEP when it comes to the language communities that are eligible for our services.
In terms of content and and how do we get the word out?
So first of all, we’re we’re trying to connect with you all today to get the information out with your help to the language communities that we cover, we do every election. We do translate the information we put it together, package it, post it on our website.
You’ll see this page is a screenshot of our.
Web page.
The short link for that is on dot NYC Gov forward slash BLA.
So it’s the so to speak. The homepage is in English, but at the top of that page you’ll see there are hyperlinks that take you to a language. Versions of this information that is translated into all 13 other languages that we cover, plus Spanish, though Spanish is not.
One of the languages that we cover.
But just because it’s such a huge community language community, we would try to have we have the information in Spanish, we make it available.
Additionally, we do put together, we do produce a digital toolkit that has key information about the election, our services, voter rights.
So we heavily.
Try to.
Amplify to put out the message that anyone in New York City, and depending on whether there is there are interpreters from the CEC or the Board of Elections, they may bring an interpreter of their choice.
So the polls, it can be anyone except for.
A Union representative or a supervisor, and they don’t even have to be an adult.
So grandkids can help, people can accompany people to vote, and can accompany them into the voting booth, not just, you know, show up with them at the information desk, right?
So they can get anyone to assist them throughout the voting process.
So the information here also includes simple language translated into the 13 languages that we provide services in.
Graphics PSA we cannot Scroll down. I guess we could try but it might.
It might just like click on the link.
So there there’s sample language.
We’ve linked the assets in English and all of the 13 languages. There is a PSA that we have produced in the past. The subtitles then voiced over in old languages, but Albanian and Greek, because those two were added to our language offerings very recently and we also.
Have a new multilingual multi language asset.
32nd it’s.
Kind of a cool asset because when we’re posting where my colleagues Jorwell and Sophia are posting on social media, it’s kind of a struggle to like how do we make it inclusive and try to cover or reach as many of the language communities that we provide.
Services to so this sees a brand new asset that hopefully will help get the message across that you know people have the right of voting there to their language, bring an interpreter.
And that we’re available at select poll sites to provide support.
We will make this link available to all of you.
So you can see the toolkit. You can download the PSA, the the Voting Rights PSA, that’s language specific.
It’s available as I mentioned in English and 11 languages, plus the new asset.
We also do produce materials in in all of the VRA languages.
Is, so we work with partners to get this out with canvas, with help from our outreach team.
So we do get this out to the communities that we serve.
Finally, we do partner with community organizations that are direct service providers in these geographies that we cover with services and work with language communities.
This was a new initiative that we launched last June, June before the June 2025 primary, and we’re keeping this alive because it’s a very efficient way of reaching the language communities.
In their language.
Through trusted partners that in this case, our community organizations, these pictures are from November 2025 because the sessions for this primary are still ongoing. So we don’t have the the reporting back with pictures and videos, but these are like this is a very crucial partnership and.
Organizations that don’t even do civic engagement, you know, they’re getting trained by us.
They’re getting the content, so they have all the information.
We’re putting together PowerPoint presentations in language and then the facilitator that speaks the language and is trained by us holds this info sessions in the geographies where we’re actually serving these people, so.
Yeah, we’re really proud of this initiative and we’re hoping to expand in the future.
Any questions?
Oh, important reminders, so please do remind everyone they can bring anyone to the polls to help them vote inside the voting booth inside the privacy booth at the scanner. OK.
They they do not have to just be accompanied to the polls.
OK.
It’s it’s. It can be confusing. Can be, you know, process even if they are a thing they can manage.
You know anyone? Anyone should bring someone to help them out.
That was it.
So this is the PSA.
I don’t think we need to play it, but this is a PSA.
I believe those of you who’ve been here before know about it.
It’s LinkedIn, the toolkit.
You can use this later.
It’s in YouTube to illustrate the reporting that.
Those of you who are broadcast, I guess or online and yeah, that was it. Questions.
OK, pennies it.
I don’t know if I’m saying this right.
Language assistance programming provides the Bronx boundaries should be able to be voided, and if you say that for the police, then go to BOE. Mm-hmm. For an election proprietor, yes.
Services, yes, yes.
What about the boot genius?
Did we see or didn’t mention it?
Because a lot of people leave in. No, I did mention the Brooklyn is also covered by by UH WE.
Oh yes, select poll sites.
They also do not provide services everywhere, but we mentioned about the seven I and I notes, but in this number about, yeah, less, it’s less. There are communities that live there, but plus what other people living.
Yeah.
Did you already talk about the changes in state law?
I mentioned the state law, but no so.
So last November there were changes introduced due to the.
John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which I mentioned earlier.
So that low lowered the threshold for the board of election. The county threshold of Cdlets for Asian and Spanish and Latin Spanish languages.
So languages that are covered by the federal.
Voting Rights Act.
The New York State, John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act lower the threshold for the board of election.
And so the board of election took over.
Because of these changes, they had to start providing.
Chinese on Staten Island because there were more than 4000 Chinese speaking CVS on Staten Island, they took over.
Urdu.
In Brooklyn, because in Brooklyn there were more than 4000.
Early speaking CBLEP so.
And the other one was, I believe Bangla also in Brooklyn.
So those thresholds were met and and they were transferred from Austin.
The the responsibility was was taken over by the board of election starting last November.
Yeah. And I and as well as I forget who gets on the call.
Who? Who’s from the building?
As well, and so the Board of Elections also providing an interpretation.
Yeah, the Gallup, yeah, not.
For the Filipino community, yeah, in in the in Queens only.
So for the voters, like I should tell my readers that you know, if they want and they want to go like in Brooklyn.
There’s seven point and I don’t know what they have to go through to the website so.
That’s a really good question.
So that’s something we need to clarify, right?
Voters need to go out to vote.
Show up to vote at the poll site that’s been assigned to them by the Board of Elections.
They cannot choose to go to a poll site that is covered or has CC interpretations.
Services or interpreters?
They cannot do that, right?
So if they they can go to the board of Election website, check their early voting poll site, check their Election Day poll site and then they they can go to the to the CC website, right?
They’ll see our map there. The list of poll sites. If we cover it in their language, in a language they speak fine, if they.
That poll site that they’re supposed to they’re supposed to vote at.
Doesn’t have a service.
Unfortunately, they cannot choose to just go to a poll site that has the service they need to show up. They need to go to the poll site assigned by the board of election and bring someone to interpret to to help them out.
You know, family, neighbor, grandkid.
Only. Yeah, but yeah, that’s why we we always make sure to tell everybody that they have the right to bring an interpreter with them because.
Because we we are.
We can’t be everywhere, right?
So we just wanna. Yeah. Make sure people are powered to go and vote anyway.
Vibrate it as long as it’s not, yeah.
There is a lawyer. Yeah, they can bring anybody with them.
I’m sorry. So Eric, is that needs to drop off at 2:00.
So please, Eric, do take the floor and talk about CFBCFBS work related to the June primary.
Eric Friedman 26:35
Anila, thank you. Thank you, Anila.
And and apologies that I need to to drop off a little bit early, but I wanna thank you and your colleagues, certainly for the invitation to to join you guys today.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 26:42
Curtis.
Eric Friedman 26:49
But really, for also for all of the work you do to ensure that we we across city government are removing the barriers to to full participation in city elections.
Through folks who who may face barriers because of language.
I’ll take a few minutes.
I’ll I’ll I’ll share some I I do not have a slide deck to share.
I apologize for that.
I’m gonna drop some information over here in the chat for folks to to to sort of get a sense of of of what, some of the services we’re providing around this year’s election.
But I’ll just take a few minutes to talk about CFB and what we do and why we’re here.
So the New York City Campaign Finance board.
Generally our work serves.
You know, it’s really aligned with the work that our call is here at the.
That the CDC are doing to help make democracy in New York City more open and more accessible, more transparent, more equitable.
And we do this in two main ways.
We administer the the matching funds program for city elections and for folks who were following last year’s election. The matching funds system plays a large role in in helping elect a mayor, helping elect mayor members of City Council.
We also administer NYC votes, which is a nonpartisan independent.
Initiative of City of of that is focused on making it easier for all New Yorkers to participate in local elections.
We have a specific mandate in the City Charter to prioritize New Yorkers who are underrepresented in our politics, or who face additional barriers to voting.
So you know we we you know the Board of Elections is their job to to, to print the ballot and and run the poll sites.
Civic Engagement Commission supplements.
The work that they do by helping ensure that folks who are showing up at the polls.
You know if if they need additional language support, have that available to them and and we we kind of layer in next to all that to to to to reach out to provide information to all New Yorkers.
But again, very specifically in communities that are underrepresented among voters. And so, you know, through our work and our research has helped to find, you know, 4 main priority audiences.
For our work, so that includes young voters under 30, it includes, you know, really pertinent to this conversation. Immigrant voters and voters who speak languages other than English.
It also includes voters with disabilities and and voters who’ve been impacted by the criminal legal system and and, you know, as part of developing our outreach strategy that we’ve also focused a lot of the of the work we do in specific areas of the city, right. So this.
This includes.
Where where specific areas of the city where there are concentrations of of those of those demographics that I mentioned, you know, particularly folks who speak languages other than English and and in areas where there has been traditionally low engagement low voter turn out.
So we we focus a lot of our work specifically in, in, in the South Bronx.
In kind of a cluster of neighborhoods in kind of North Central Queens, including Flushing, Elmhurst and Corona.
And in in a lot of a large part of of South and southeast Brooklyn.
So communities across Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Canarsie, East, New York, Cypress Hills, you know, very, you know.
Diverse set of needs in in a lot of those communities, but there there’s a lot we do to try to, to open up participation in those in in those areas and and and really attack the the those those obstacles and barriers that a lot of New Yorkers face.
In terms of participation?
So.
You know, we, I’ll, I’ll talk briefly about a number of the the resources that we have available to folks.
I will start kind of go through some of the links I posted in the chat our our our website nycvotes.org.
You know, I again, we had a lot of the information that Aneela shared earlier about.
Like the basic facts about about every election are are will always be available at nycvotes.org.
That website is.
Is is translated into 13 languages other than English?
Those include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, both simplified and traditional Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.
You know the the, the, our, our flagship resource that we provide for for voters also is published in, in, in all of those languages we publish the voter guide that that goes to all New Yorkers. If you if you live in the city, you you received one of.
These in your mail last year, right before the primary and the general election for years like this one, where we are electing.
Candidates for state and federal elected office.
We publish a voter guide that goes online so it lives on our website.
The link to that website when it is published later this week, we’re just putting the finishing touches on the voter guide for for this this month’s primary. So it will be available to voters in a couple days, and it will have, you know, profiles that the candid.
For each office have provided right? So we we do outreach to to everybody who’s on the ballot.
And ask them to provide information that we.
The like.
Basic biographical information and and statements about their stances on the issues we make. All of those those profiles available to voters we we translate them in all into all of those citywide languages as we are mandated to do by law, so that that resource will be published really.
In just a couple days so, you know, feel free. I will before I leave, I will.
I will make sure I have my e-mail.
I’ll post my e-mail in the chat if folks are not connected with us and and on our e-mail list.
I you know, I definitely reach out.
Shout out to me and we’ll make sure we get you on that list.
I mentioned the voter guide. We also through our you know we have a a partnership in outreach team that provides a lot of you know we we work with organizations all over the city. But again focused on those areas that I that I described earlier.
And and provide trainings to, to, to members of of those communities.
To to help them understand kind of how to how to how to deepen their participation.
And in the election system, in our local democracy generally.
You know, we a lot of those partners.
Help us to, to to speak with with communities who need their information and languages other than English and and so we.
There there, there’s.
Do not have a list of those events upcoming available to me, but you know for some of those events that that we’re running, there is a link to our NYC.
It’s events calendar that I’ve posted there in the chat and you could find that there as well.
You know, we also if if you’ve been out and around the city in the last couple weeks, you may may have seen some of the advertising that that that we do through our NYC votes initiative to help make more people aware of of the dates of the up.
Election and and and to help them participate, help connect them with our resources.
Those advertisements are running, you know, out of home.
You know, you’ll see murals out around the city.
You’ll see kind of live boards up on on transit bus shelters, on on kind of the NYC link kiosks we’ve got.
We’re working with Laundromats and we have print advertisements that are appearing in laundromats across the city and a lot, and all that is being done. In addition to the English language advertising we do.
In in in additional 9 languages, so 10 languages overall.
And I think that the last, the last thing I’ll mention and and I’ll I see a couple hands raised and then I can take a few minutes before 2:00 if folks have questions for me.
Is is, you know we we communicate with a lot of folks on social media and and not just in English and and they’re doing it increasingly in languages other than English.
There are links there to our Instagram and our Facebook channels.
You can find a lot of that content.
There.
And yeah, I’ll pause it.
And really, again I just.
I’m thankful for the opportunity for to share some of this information with. With this group, you know the the work you do is so important to helping New Yorkers navigate.
You know what system that can be.
Look for for better. For worse voting can be can sometimes feel.
You know, bureaucratic and and kind of you know may it may feel.
Was though.
Folks are making it difficult on purpose.
We’re not making it difficult on purpose, but but we are here.
CFB and and NYC votes. And the Civic Engagement Commission are all here to help New Yorkers, you know, meet New Yorkers where they are and get them the information that they can understand to help them navigate this process and and really appreciate you.
You coming here to support this work and and to be partners with us in this work?
So thank you.
If if folks have questions for me, I can take a few minutes.
sunuafrik Radio 36:20
Yeah. Can we go for the? Yes. Go ahead. I think Mushra was first.
Mushrath 36:32
It’s OK.
Go ahead.
sunuafrik Radio 36:33
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for putting this together.
We really appreciate you guys and it’s very important, as you know, New York City is an immigrant city and this is very important. I would speak for the French side of it for many, many years to Africa radio, tune Africa, NTV and TUNAFIC radio.com, which is.
The website we’ve been serving the African community.
Francophone community, but for quite a while now, we haven’t heard.
No advertisement. I just heard every talk about advertisement is very important and I heard people talking about new media.
I understand new media is very important, but ethnic media, you know, as you can see election happening. That’s why we have a mayor today sitting where he is today because of the immigrant community.
So if today we don’t get no advertisement coming from this administration is something that really frustrates.
So I just want to make sure about that, but I really appreciate this usually around this time we used to get advertisement.
From de Blasio to Eric Adams to now, I would rather.
So it’s just a question I’m asking.
How come people know about it? But some people don’t know about it? The new media?
Yes, people.
Some people are all about new media, but some people are not about new media and I think we should be all of it.
You should be able to reach out all the New Yorkers, whatever they may come from, whatever media they are using.
And this is very important and my question is now and now I.
I know that time is really short, is very close to getting to election.
Eric Friedman 38:07
Yeah.
sunuafrik Radio 38:07
What are you guys planning to do with the ethnic media?
Thank you again for putting this together.
Appreciate you guys.
Eric Friedman 38:14
I really appreciate the question and I think I, you know, I take, I mean I I know you’re right that you know, not everybody is not everybody is getting their information from one of these.
You know, it is increasingly an important part of the way that we communicate to folks.
But but some folks, you know, they need to have have the paper to read in their hand. You know, every community has trusted messengers.
You know who, who, who, who?
Are kind of like like kind of neighborhood hubs.
You know where, where, where? You know folks kind of.
You know, just whether it’s an organization, you know, so yeah.
sunuafrik Radio 38:50
I’m. I’m sorry, Eric.
I’m sorry, in our case it’s the radio and then the website.
Eric Friedman 38:55
Yep, yeah, yeah.
sunuafrik Radio 38:55
And some people buy ATV, some brand newspaper, and I just want to make sure.
Eric Friedman 38:58
No, that’s exactly right. And I appreciate it.
And I think that’s that’s part of the look.
That’s the knowledge that I think we’re in order to be effective, we have to get into every community and and learn that on the ground.
So I I like my contact information is is there in the chat.
If if you’d like to continue that conversation, I’m happy to do it.
I I’ll say that that you know we work with.
A firm that helps us make choices about where to advertise so that we can make sure that we’re reaching folks and so that that that, you know, we’re constantly.
You know, assessing after every election how to how to best do that and how to reach people. So again, my contact information is there.
I’m happy to continue the conversation.
Mushrath 39:45
Hi, thank you so much for including us in the conversation.
Thank you Doctor Sayed Anila, Eric Joruel Anila and Eric, you guys covered most of my questions.
Thank you. But I I had one more question. Looking at the data that you have shared today, what is one gap in voters outreach that still concerns you the most?
And what can community organizations and ethnic media can do to help?
Close that gap.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 40:16
Well, I would say the gap is bigger.
Generally there is a gap.
We’re not reaching everyone that we’re supposed to reach. As I mentioned earlier, one in four New York City is limited English proficient and our resources are limited.
So 95% of our resources go to words making providing the services right.
So it’s always a challenge where.
Under resource under staff.
Is always a challenge to reach the diverse communities that we are like we cover with the voter language assistance program.
So there’s definitely a lot of opportunity for ethnic media to be the bridge between the services that the CC provides, the services and information that can be finance board provides.
And the language community so.
Almost all of you work with language communities and it’s vital that they get this information and they become.
Civically engaged, and participate in the civic life of New York City, not just in the economic life, right.
Eric Friedman 41:33
No.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 41:34
So you definitely have a role to play.
Very important role. I don’t think. I cannot think of.
An approach or a tool that could be more effective that than having new service a bridge between?
City services and these communities, the communities that you serve and we know funding for ADS is is not available.
It’s not.
You know, it’s not as.
Extensive as it was before, during COVID, so that is a challenge and and I know that a lot of you have to pivot and get more creative, but I can well, we can all agree I should say that it’s vital that we empower these people to know.
Their rights to know what’s going on around them, to know how they can actually play a role.
So definitely we don’t want to do this roundtable just when the elections around the corner.
We’re more than happy to be in touch with you throughout the year.
Fiona, talk with Doctor Saeed or myself or any other colleague.
You know the the particular budgeting program team, you are more than welcome to reach out and do that, you know and we’ll give you everything you need.
It’s time I think it’s important for us to, like, strategize, and think about how we talk about immigrant communities.
Eric Friedman 42:53
I.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 42:58
Right, everyone, we all working with immigrant communities.
Some of us we are from immigrant communities and we often think about them as how they contribute to the economy, right?
That’s the frame that we use.
I think we also need to include how they’re important to democracy.
Right. Why is their voice important?
And start to think about the stories that you’re telling from that angle, right?
Who are the people in these communities? And you know who they are, who are very civically engaged.
Who go to their who are Community Board members who go vote, who you know, do all kinds of other civic engagement and start to profile their stories so that they can be inspiration. Right. And you have like.
People serving on nonprofit boards.
I know the Bama lady.
She community has so many civic.
Organizations. It’s one of the most prolific in terms of the civic associations that it has.
So really highlighting the importance of immigrants to democracy, I think also is very important in this time with everything happening at the federal level.
So just shifting the framework and that’s something you could do independently of the ads that you may get.
I mean for for our end, we know it’s not enough to just provide services.
It’s not enough to just translate.
You actually have to connect with communities on the ground and you have to build the relationships on the ground, right and build relationships with all of you is is part of it too.
But they have funded.
Yes, we are the, you know, like the newspaper. We don’t have like the founder from anywhere.
So always depend on the ads.
And, you know, winter. Yeah, you. You write one time.
Two times.
Three times. But at the end, you know, we won’t try to have something to support you. Yeah.
Eric Friedman 45:00
Yeah.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 45:01
Support you like, you know, before we go and working without the ad organization, they they are.
They are very rich, you know. They have money from everywhere, but the ethnic they don’t have nothing.
So this is, you know.
What you all the time you know.
I feel like you know when our, you know, like my colleague, the newspaper, like they asked for that. But you know they are right.
Yeah. And then when we have like, you know, go from and you and make sense for our community and for the administration.
Eric Friedman 45:30
But.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 45:39
Without nothing without, I don’t know like this, this gap of can we make it, you know? Yeah. Eric. Did you want to add?
Eric Friedman 45:45
I yeah, I I and I just got one thing and before I have to jump off and and again apologize for having to to leave early.
But I I think I everything folks said in response to the question is really important and just the thing I would add to it is with everything happening right now, we’re in a moment where government is not always the best messenger in every community, right, mistrust and Dist.
In government is such a high right now?
In this moment, we’re living through.
That you know, having like partnerships with, with, with platforms like yours, like with partners working in communities showing up every day is so important for all of our work to ensure that folks have the tools they need and and and we can’t be effective without those without those.
Partnerships. So again, I I appreciate the question.
If there is a gap, that’s the gap I see is just kind of how we transcend that trust gap.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 46:45
OK.
Eric Friedman 46:45
And and and and you know, I think folks have talked really spoken really beautifully about that.
So I just wanted to kind of echo that and and and and take a couple extra minutes.
But again, thank you again for for providing the space for me to join this conversation and and to share some information about the work we do.
My e-mail and contact information is in the chat for anybody who wants to to talk further, so thanks again.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 47:10
Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Eric.
Eric Friedman 47:10
Bye.
Mushrath 47:11
Thank you.
Thank you.
sunuafrik Radio 47:13
Thank you.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 47:14
I think someone somebody else had Eric have a question.
Yeah. Eric had said in that.
My question is for CEC or sorry Joe Gonzale.
Z question.
Gonzalo Duran 47:29
Yes, hello everyone.
So I just want to.
In my last order for the CCI wasn’t able to clarify something.
And I might have missed it today, but where exactly do you get the?
Percentage and the numbers that you need so you can dictate where you put the individual, the translator, the interpreters.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 47:50
8.
Yeah, we it’s based on American Community Survey data.
The Department of City Planning, they put out the data.
That’s collected through the American Community Survey.
So they process and and then package it and then make it available.
So if you’re curious about the population, including limited English proficiency, you can go to the Department of City Planning website.
It has fascinating data so.
That data ACS at the at the district level, Puma level and district level then gets a portion to election districts, right?
Gonzalo Duran 48:24
OK.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 48:37
By data scientists.
And then that’s how we come up with an estimate.
It’s not exact science because American communities survey data itself.
It’s not exact science, just a survey.
And based on this estimate, we.
We so this American Community Survey data that captures citizen of voting age with limited English proficiency, right?
So that’s that estimate.
At the Puma level and the and the district level, right?
And then those get a portion. So there’s not quite overlapped with election districts.
So data scientists have developed a way to come up with an estimate of citizen voting age so 18 and older with limited English proficiency that live in the election districts that are assigned to poll sites. And then they tally up the estimate of citizen voting age with limited.
English proficiency that speak a particular language.
And these eds, eds. Assigned to a poll site.
Right. And they say and they we rank the poll site so we have.
So for each poll site of the Board of Elections, so the Board of Elections sends a list of early voting poll sites and Election Day poll sites, and the data scientists then come up with an estimate of speakers cdla PS for all of the VLAN languages and every.
One of these poll sites, and then if we’re going to provide 100 poll sites with services on Election Day.
Day right based on the percent share, 39% of poll sites or services should go to Russia, right?
So we look at the cdleep and the poll site ranking for Russia.
So we’re going to look at where which ones are the 40 poll sites that rank the highest in terms of citizen or voting age with limited in proficiency concentration.
But Serialip is a speak Russian, right?
So the data is there that it’s again it’s an estimate.
It’s not exact science, but it’s based basically American Community Survey data is a data that we work with.
Gonzalo Duran 50:55
OK.
So the the survey is used to break it down to where the interpreters are going.
Great. I understand that part. And for the purposes of the CEC and New York City elections, participating budgeting is doesn’t matter.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 51:01
Mm-hmm.
Gonzalo Duran 51:11
Your immigration status.
Everybody can vote 11 and up.
But for voting purposes, U.S. citizens and that’s a differentiate between the two at the moment, OK.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 51:22
Yeah. Yeah. So to vote, you have to be a citizen.
Gonzalo Duran 51:24
OK, perfect.
OK.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 51:30
Yeah, and and for sure PP is a participatory budgeting.
He’s open to anyone 11 and older, independent of immigration status. Yeah.
Musharraf question.
Mushrath 51:46
No, I my hand is raised.
I don’t know how to take it off, but no, no questions.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 51:50
Don’t forget. No, no worries.
Is anyone else have any other questions?
Virtually or do.
So I’ve dropped in the chat the links to the website and the links to the toolkits.
I can also copy and paste the links, so if you have so I briefly mentioned that our vendor is still looking to hire bilingual community members for June services. So I’m happy to.
Copy and paste those links in the chat.
Looking for the presentation now I think I found it.
sunuafrik Radio 52:36
Is there?
Is there is there?
Sorry, is there a way we could receive the?
That we just did on our emails if possible.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 52:45
Receive what?
I’m sorry.
By e-mail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jarwell is gonna send out all the files for the checks now.
sunuafrik Radio 52:49
Can we have like yeah.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 52:54
Yeah. Yeah. OK.
sunuafrik Radio 52:55
Thank you.
Good day. Thank you.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 53:04
OK. Thanks everyone for joining.
We really appreciate you taking the time and trying and helping us advocate and spread the message of the board language program and to read.
The communities, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us via e-mail.
We have our contact information, but you can also, yeah, reach out to us via e-mail if you have any questions or want to follow up on any on any of the points that we made today.
And we’re happy to talk not just during election time, but even after or anytime throughout the year, if there’s any kind of support to kind of better engage on our language communities across the city.
Thank you all for your time.
sunuafrik Radio 53:49
Thank you so much.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) 53:52
Thank you.
Meritt, Sophia (Consultant) stopped transcription
Banner Image: Ethnic and Community Media Roundtable on Voting Language Assistance. Image Credit – Civic Engagement Commission
NYC Civic Engagement Commission
The Civic Engagement Commission will enhance civic participation, promote civic trust, and strengthen democracy in New York City.