Bilingual election materials cost Duluth additional $7,500

The Duluth City Council recently approved a contingency budget request in an amount not to exceed $7,500 for additional expenses related to the 2017 general municipal election. These expenses were the result of the U.S. Department of Justice, Section 203 requirements to provide bilingual election materials and resources. At the time the 2017 budget was adopted, the scope of these requirements was not entirely known to the city.

Increased election expenses relate to the production of printed materials, professional services for software programming, translation services, and related attorney’s fees. With these changes, Duluth was able to provide all election information including voter registration, candidate information and election results in both English and Spanish.