Watchdog group alleges Pawtucket violated rights of Spanish-speaking voters during primary election

PROVIDENCE — A nonpartisan watchdog organization alleges the City of Pawtucket violated the rights of Spanish-speaking voters when officials failed to provide bilingual signs at a half-dozen polling places during last week’s state primary election.

The allegations come only four months after the city, facing a lawsuit from the US Justice Department, reached an agreement requiring it provide election information in both English and Spanish at all polling places and online.

In a letter to the Pawtucket’s registrar on Wednesday and obtained by the Globe Thursday, Common Cause Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion wrote what the organization’s volunteers discovered was “alarming.”

“They documented numerous violations of the consent order,” Marion wrote. “Those violations not only included the extra remedies required of Pawtucket by the consent order, but also basic signage that is required for all Rhode Island communities.”



https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/19/metro/common-cause-alleges-pawtucket-ri-violated-rights-of-spanish-speaking-voters/