Around New England

First Bilingual Ballots In Salem

October 27, 2022

The Spanish-speaking population has grown to the point where the city of Salem is using bilingual ballots for the first time this general election.

The city clerk told The Salem News that the city’s Latino Leadership Coalition helped drive response among Spanish speakers in Salem to the U.S. Census in 2020, which led to the Census’s finding of a large minority of Latinos.

The U.S. Census estimates the population of Salem as of January 1, 2021 to have been 44,819. The Latino population is about 18.3 percent.

The city clerk’s office has spent budgeted funds to buy an iPad service that offers “virtual poll workers” who speak, all told, about 100 languages, in case voters who don’t speak English have questions.

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