Armenian to be among official languages in Los Angeles elections
03.08.2012,
19:16
The Los Angeles city Council has decided to work out a stage-by-stage inclusion of Armenian, Russian and Persian in the row of official languages used in city elections, Contra Costa Times reports.
YEREVAN, August 3. /ARKA/. The Los Angeles city Council has decided to work out a stage-by-stage inclusion of Armenian, Russian and Persian in the row of official languages used in city elections, Contra Costa Times reports.
“Ballots will not be printed in these languages because of the cost. The municipality will appeal to different communities, seek poll workers who speak the languages and offer election information in those languages,” the source reports.
June Lagmay, a representative of the city council, said the program will be put into effect by 2015.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, on his side, said Armenian is the most widely used language in the city after English, Spanish and Korean.
Eric Garcetti, another councilman, said that the Los Angeles authorities can increase turnout in elections by providing information in other languages to the city residents.
“We found in recent elections that we were able to increase turnout by 2,000 just by having people speak Armenian,” he said. -0--
