U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason plans to conduct a 10-day trial this month, in a voting rights lawsuit to translate all election materials into Alaskan Native languages – it has been reported.
Brought to the courtroom by several Native villages and elders with limited English proficiency, the trial will address the matter of a law in which the state is obliged to provide accurate translations of all voting materials including: pamphlets, instructions,
registration materials and ballot papers.
The ruling comes just weeks after the Alaska senate passed the Alaska Native Language Bill to make its 21 native languages, official languages of the state.