SAINT PAUL — Today, Secretary of State Steve Simon announced the launch of the largest collection of foreign language voter resources ever to be made available by the Secretary of State’s Office. The website, mnvotes.org, now includes ten new foreign language sections dedicated to providing Minnesotans with important voter information as they head to the polls on August 9 for the Primary Election and November 8 for the General Election.
The new language sections include Amharic, Chinese, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Materials in the Karen language will be added in the coming weeks. Languages were chosen based on census data on eligible voters in Minnesota and links to each section can be found near the top of mnvotes.org.
“As the son of an immigrant, I know how important it is to provide our New Americans with voter resources in their native language—something Minnesota has done since 1896 when voter information was provided in languages like Norwegian and German,” said Secretary Simon. “We should do everything we can to provide eligible voters with the information they need to vote, and this is an important step in that direction. I’ve challenged the people of Minnesota to return our state back to number one in voter turnout this November and I encourage Minnesotans to take advantage of these new resources.”
Each language’s section on the website contains five main pages: (1) Voting in Minnesota, (2) Register to vote, (3) Election Day voting, (4) Vote Early with an absentee ballot and (5) Where do I vote and what’s on my ballot?
On those pages Minnesotans can find information regarding important election dates, who can vote, how to register to vote, same-day registration, how to vote early in person or by mail, absentee ballot instructions, how to track the status of an absentee ballot, voting locations and hours, what’s on their ballot, and much more.
Additionally, critical voter fact sheets are also now available in these languages to download or order at no cost, including:
To download or order these fact sheets at no cost, click here.
In previous years, the Secretary of State’s Office provided only a small set of essential forms for voter registration and absentee ballots in five languages other than English.
###