Washington, D.C.— As the debate over legal and illegal immigration looms over Washington this week, Congressman Steve King (R-IA) is highlighting the growing grassroots opposition to requirements that election ballots be printed in languages other than English.

Current provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) require election ballots to be printed in multiple languages. The VRA is slated to be reauthorized by Congress this year. King and Homeland Security Chairman Peter King are spearheading a large group of their House colleagues to ensure that these provisions are not included in the reauthorization.

The group of 56 lawmakers have expressed concern that the multilingual ballot requirements are inconsistent with the naturalization process, which requires legal immigrants to learn English to become citizens.

“English is the language of opportunity,” said King. “Multilingual ballots encourage a linguistic divide in our nation and discourage law-abiding immigrants from learning English to naturalize and assimilate into our society.”

A coalition of 26 grassroots organizations, including ProEnglish and the Eagle Forum, have also banded together to pressure Chairman Sensenbrenner of the House Judiciary Committee, who has jurisdiction over the issue, to oppose the VRA section requiring multilingual ballots. In addition, a new Zogby poll unveiled today shows a majority of Americans would prefer election ballots to be printed only in English.

King said multilingual ballots increase the risk of errors and fraud. For example, in a 2000 election, six poll sites in Flushing, NY, printed ballots in Chinese with the names of the political parties reversed. In addition, he said they are unnecessary, because voters needing help may already bring their translator into the voting booth, according to current federal law.