Language Officer Information

Language Officers are election officers, who in addition to performing all regular officer duties, may also assist voters in a language other than English.

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act generally requires jurisdictions to provide language assistance to voters if more than 5% of voting-age citizens are members of a single-language minority group. In Fairfax County, we always assign Language Officers for Spanish, Vietnamese, and Korean in needed precincts.

To qualify as a Language Officer, an individual must pass an oral language skills assessment. We then assign Language Officers to precincts based on US Census data and voter feedback. About one-third of our precincts are assigned at least one Language Officer.

Additional notes:

• Language Officers are assigned every election, regardless of their party affiliation. For other officers, we must consider their party affiliation when making precinct assignments (e.g. in a single-party Democratic primary, we generally only assign Democratic officers).
• Language Officers are assigned before other officers.
• Language Officers must fluently speak English, in addition to their other language.
• Language officers will receive and wear a special name badge on election day which identifies them as a Language Officer and the language they speak.
• Language Officers receive the same stipend as regular officers.