Title
Committee Report: Rules & Ordinance: (Paper #85-21) Order: That the City submit to the Massachusetts Legislature for passage in substantially the following form:
AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE PREPARATION OF CERTAIN BILINGUAL BALLOTS IN THE CITY OF MALDEN
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
SECTION 1. As used in this act, "transliteration" shall mean the translation into the relevant Chinese characters to represent the phonetic equivalent of the syllables of an English name or a name in a language that is not traditionally written using Chinese characters.
SECTION 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special state law to the contrary, in any election in which the state secretary or the city clerk is required by federal law to print bilingual English and Chinese ballots for use by voters of the city, the state secretary or city clerk, as the case may be, shall also provide for the transliteration of all candidates' names. Each candidate shall be provided with a written copy of the proposed transliteration of that candidate's name, and may, within 7 days, request in writing any modification to the proposed transliteration or may decline to have the candidate's own name transliterated on the ballot. The transliteration shall be subject to final approval by the state secretary or city clerk, as the case may be. The state secretary or city clerk shall provide public notice of transliterated names as soon as practicable.
SECTION 3. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the city in any primary or state or federal election shall be responsible for the cost of transliteration and the state secretary shall be responsible for all other costs resulting from the implementation of this act including, without limitation, the production of ballots.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
The Standing Committee ...
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