Election Officials Required To Provide Ballots And Voting Materials In Numerous Languages; Senator Sessions Discusses Amnesty Bill; Flag Protection Act
PILGRIM: The Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating multilingual ballots. And right now, election officials are required to provide ballots and voting materials in numerous languages. But several measures before Congress could end that. Lisa Sylvester reports.</s>LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Voting in American elections in a foreign language. In Orange County, California, ballots by law must be offered in five languages. The county's fourth district supervisor says it's just a waste of money.</s>CHRIS NORBY, ORANGE COUNTY SUPERVISOR: The concerns are that the current Voting Rights Act is vague, it's arbitrary, and it also is very costly. Counties are spending tens of millions of dollars every election cycle.</s>SYLVESTER: Congress is considering whether to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act multilingual election requirements that are set to expire next year. Currently, 299 counties and 30 states provide ballots in a language other than English, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tagalog, and in the native language of 13 Native American tribes. Those who favor extending the multilingual provisions argue that it protects minority voters.</s>SPENCER OVERTON, AUTHOR, "STEALING DEMOCRACY": Bilingual ballots give politicians and political parties incentives to reach out to communities that don't have strong English skills.</s>SYLVESTER: But a coalition of think tanks and individuals sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter. They point out naturalized citizens have to pass an English proficiency test and say there's no need for ballots in languages other than English.</s>K.C. MCALPIN, PROENGLISH: The message is why bother to learn English to become a citizen if we're going to give you ballots in your native language?</s>SYLVESTER: Two GAO reports found that multilingual ballots are not only expensive, they're rarely used. In Orange County, California, fewer than one percent of voters request information in a foreign language.</s>SYLVESTER: And a new CNN poll this week found that 75 percent of respondents favor making English the official language and if this became a law, all official government business, including voting would be conducted only in English -- Kitty.</s>PILGRIM: Makes a lot of sense. Thanks very much, Lisa Sylvester.</s>SYLVESTER: Well this does bring us to our poll tonight. Do you believe that ballots for U.S. elections should be offered in any language other than English? Yes or no. Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll bring you the results a little bit later in the broadcast. Now this broadcast has commissioned a comprehensive nationwide poll on illegal immigration, border security and the legislation being debated in Washington. The survey definitely, definitively gauges Americans' attitudes on the critical subjects and tonight we'll examine five of the questions. So here we go, 53 percent of those surveyed believe that who cannot read or write English should not be permitted to vote; 47 percent believe those who want to immigrate to the United States should not be required to have a certain level of education. But 63 percent believe immigrants should have a certain level of job skills. And an overwhelming 93 percent of Americans surveyed agree that immigrants should be required to show that they do not have a criminal record. And fully 83 percent believe that police should check a person's citizenship status when making an arrest. Now, the immigration legislation now under consideration in Washington does not include all of those provisions. America's opinions on illegal immigration and border security should affect the legislation Congress adopts and the one that President Bush signs. In his news conference this morning, however, President Bush explained the crucial role of public opinion in a democracy.</s>BUSH: This elected government is going to have to respond to the people. And that's a big change.</s>PILGRIM: Now, we should note that President Bush was talking about the elected government in Iraq. Senator Jeff Sessions says the Senate ignored the will of the people in passing an amnesty bill for illegal aliens that would cost taxpayers tens of billions each year. A CBO report Sessions commissions says that the bill will also do nothing to stop illegal aliens entering this country. I asked Senator Sessions what the purpose of the Senate immigration bill is, if not to stop the flow of illegal aliens?</s>SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: That was the purpose, but the CBO numbers are based on the Senate bill. And they say, in a fact, there's no change in illegal immigration for 10 years. It would be 700,000 to 900,000 a year. If anything, that's certainly no less and maybe more than the current rate. So it really belies the argument that this bill is going to make any progress on enforcement. It certainly does not appear to.</s>PILGRIM: What does that say about the value of this bill, sir?</s>SESSIONS: Well I think it again is another indication that it is unacceptable, that it's terribly flawed, should never become law and will not do what it promises. It promises to enforce the border. And that's proven to be false. I think I've already said that, but the CBO confirmed it. Workplace enforcement is not there. And the future flow plans to allow millions coming in in the future at a much higher rate are just unprincipled and not valuable, not good for the United States. So we definitely need to review this legislation.</s>PILGRIM: House Speaker Dennis Hastert has said that he wants to take a long look at this bill and potentially hold hearings. Do you think hearings are appropriate? They're certainly not normal.</s>SESSIONS: No, they're not normal. But you know, the House has none of this so-called comprehensive approach to immigration. Theirs was focused primarily on enforcement. And so if they're going to consider the comprehensive bill at all, they absolutely should study it. We never had enough hearings in the Senate. This bill just basically came up and moved through with very few hearings directly related to the gray issues on immigration. We just didn't discuss the real important issues in any significant way. For example, we've never considered whether or not we ought to adopt what Canada does, and that is to have a point system. Why haven't we even discussed that? It seems to me it makes an awful lot of sense.</s>PILGRIM: All right, you know, could this immigration reform bill be hammered out behind closed doors with the congressional leadership? Do you see it going that way?</s>SESSIONS: Well, that's a very dangerous thing. The American people's confidence in the government on a question of immigration is very low. They're very cynical. And if anyone thinks they can hammer out a bill and then ram it through without the American people being alerted, I think they're in for big trouble and just further erode public confidence in what we're doing.</s>PILGRIM: The Senate -- procedurally the Senate bill has to be attached to a House bill to avoid a constitutional issue. Would you support a unanimous consent to send to it the House?</s>SESSIONS: You know, I haven't made a decision about that. My personal view is we need to discuss this bill more. No one senator can block a bill from being considered, but can provide an opportunity for more debate. So we'll be looking at that.</s>PILGRIM: And timetable-wise, if this doesn't get to the House and Senate by August 1st, do you think it will make it at all in this session?</s>SESSIONS: You know, it may not. Then again, something could happen. But from what I'm hearing from the House, that they're so concerned about the viability of the comprehensive language in the Senate bill, not that they're so against the comprehensive bill, but just that they are uneasy and unaccepting of what we've done, then I think it's got a long way to go to become law, frankly.</s>PILGRIM: Let's talk about Republican Brian Bilbray's platform. He ran on an anti-amnesty platform. Do you think that that sends a message to Republicans for the fall?</s>SESSIONS: I absolutely do. I think the American people care about this issue far more than politicians will admit to themselves. We're almost in denial around here, it seems to me, about the importance of this issue. We talk about other issues when in the minds of the American people, immigration really is a seminal issue. It's a defining issue for our nation and for how they will evaluate their government officials.</s>PILGRIM: Well we're delighted you came on the program to discuss it with us again, sir. Senator Jeff Sessions, thank you.</s>SESSIONS: Thank you.</s>PILGRIM: Some lawmakers today in Washington did not miss the opportunity to use this Flag Day to their advantage. Perhaps the most notable event was a rally to support the Flag Protection Amendment, an issue many say is pure politics. Bill Schneider has the report.</s>SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: We're really kicking it off today on Flag Day. We're stepping in to say no more.</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has scheduled a vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow the government to ban flag desecration.</s>FRIST: We have a few unifying symbols, and chief among those are the flag.</s>SCHNEIDER: But the one thing this debate is not, is unifying.</s>SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: This is a political effort, and we've had a number of these political efforts. The danger here, though, of course, is that this one is close.</s>SCHNEIDER: That's because a solid majority of Americans support a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. There she is, Miss America, speaking in favor of it.</s>HEATHER FRENCH, FORMER MISS AMERICA: Did you know that it is illegal to burn a dollar bill?</s>SCHNEIDER: Critics argue it's a matter of protecting freedom of expression.</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: The First Amendment protects not only speech we admire, but also speech we abhor.</s>SCHNEIDER: They see a constitutional amendment as a solution for which there is no real problem.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've said often that it's almost akin to dropping an atomic bomb on a sleeping city, because there may be a felon in the area.</s>SCHNEIDER: They smell politics behind the Republican leader's insistence on the vote.</s>SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: The motives of the scheduling are very, very clear.</s>SCHNEIDER: This is an issue that divides Democrats.</s>SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: I want to call today on the Democratic leader to push his members to support this constitutional amendment. With that, this amendment will pass. Without that, I doubt it will.</s>SCHNEIDER: But there's no doubt that it will be an issue in the upcoming campaign.</s>SCHNEIDER: The hottest item in Washington this Flag Day, it's this ingenious self-waving flag, devised by inventor Richard Levy of Bethesda, Maryland. Now, the device is made in China, but the flag is made by Valley Forge Flag Company right here in Pennsylvania. You see right here, it says, "Flag printed in USA, assembled in China." Kitty?</s>PILGRIM: It's a great combination. Thanks very much, Bill Schneider. We couldn't do without you, Bill. All right, just ahead, the president's surprise visit to Baghdad and the future of our troops in Iraq. I'll discuss those topics and a whole lot more with our political panel next. And he's not backing down. The owner of Geno's Cheesesteaks says he has every right to ask his customers to order in English.