Despite Milwaukee’s south side having the highest concentration of Latino voters in the city, there were no Spanish-speaking poll workers available at the South Division High School polling place until about 1 p.m. on Election Day.
Imelda Montes, 56, walked into South Division High School late Tuesday morning to help her elderly parents vote. Montes, who was visiting from Mexico and does not speak English, had difficulty helping her parents register to vote because none of the polling places could speak Spanish, she said.
Ruby De Leon, the corporate attorney for Voces de La Frontera Action, was at the polling station as an election observer when she saw Montes and her parents struggling to talk to poll workers.
Poll workers provided Montes with Spanish-language materials, which the city of Milwaukee must have under federal law, but there was no one to help with the questions she had.
Other constituents — and at one point someone on the phone with Montes — helped her translate and navigate the process.
“It was a struggle, but we did it,” Montes said in Spanish.
Voces de La Frontera stationed election observers at several polling places in Latino neighborhoods on Election Day to monitor for language accessibility issues and potential voter intimidation.
There were several election observers present who wanted to help Montes, but election observers are not allowed to approach voters.
“I would say most of the people who came in today spoke Spanish,” De Leon said. “Many of them are bilingual, but it is these elderly people who worry us most that they are not getting the help they need.”
De Leon reported the issue to other members of the group’s election protection program, and someone was eventually able to reach the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, which sent a bilingual poll worker around 1 p.m. By then, the family had finished voting, she said.
“If we hadn’t called, I don’t think anyone would have shown up,” De Leon said.
Language barriers did not appear to be a problem at most other voting locations on Tuesday.
Montes’ father, Alfonso Montes, 88, said he has voted in the South Division before and never had a problem until Tuesday.
“Today there was no one to help me,” he said. “But eventually someone came.”
Despite the fears, voting in Latino neighborhoods tends to go smoothly
Immigration has been a controversial issue during the election season, leading some advocates to express concerns about voter intimidation in Latino neighborhoods.
Jarrett English, political director of Voces de La Frontera, said the organization was prepared for this type of situation.
“We have a pretty complicated voter protection process,” English said. “We have observers at polling places across the state, particularly in locations where there will be Hispanic people and people who speak Spanish.”
Recruiting more bilingual pollstersespecially those who speak Spanish and Hmong, has been a target for the city of Milwaukee.
Paola Rodriguez and Michael Orlowski, volunteers with Forward Together Wisconsin, said they called the election hotline around 11 a.m. Tuesday after a voter told them there were not enough Spanish translators at the Allen-Field Elementary School polling place.
Rodriguez said the hotline was able to remind her of laws regarding translators. For example, voters can bring a family member who can help with translation.
Rafael Garcia, the superintendent there, said the polling station has three translators and that no other problems have occurred since then.
At South Division, Chief Election Inspector Freddie Franklin, who has worked at the site for a decade, said he was surprised by voter turnout on Tuesday, especially the number of new voters who showed up to vote.
As of Tuesday evening, he said the site had three Spanish-speaking election workers and at one point had as many as five.
At Morgandale School, poll worker Omar Baberena helped translate for Spanish-speaking voters.
He said he felt encouraged to see so many non-English speakers voting. When the polling station opened in the morning, Barberena saw that there were already about sixty people in line.
“There have been a lot of Spanish speakers,” Baberena said. “I used more Spanish today than I did as a poll worker in the last election.”