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.

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