Voting guide to be printed in Spanish

Friday, Nov. 30, 2001 | 9 a.m.

The Clark County Department of Elections in January will publish for the first time a Spanish-language guide to voting, an official said Wednesday.

The move is one of several designed to make it easier for the county's 191,473 Hispanics of voting age to participate in the electoral process, including recently announced plans to purchase up to 200 bilingual voting machines.

"We hope this manual helps explain how the process works and what this part of being a citizen means -- especially for those citizens who haven't lived very long in the United States," said Elsa Garcia, Hispanic liaison for the Elections Department.

Garcia said 5,000 copies of an informal voter's guide in Spanish were photocopied and distributed in the Hispanic community last year. The project was paid for by the Latin Chamber of Commerce and Nevada Power.

This year $17,000 was budgeted by the Elections Department for the translation and printing of up to 15,000 copies of the official Spanish guide.

Otto Merida, director of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, said the move will help the Hispanic community become more involved in the political process and eventually lead to greater Hispanic representation.

"This may seem like a small step, but it's part of a greater mosaic in the development of a community that is now 22 percent of the total population," he said.