NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Bilingual Ballots!
Jimmy Delshad, a city councilman and an Iranian Jewish immigrant who came to the U.S. as a teenager, has a real shot at becoming the mayor of Beverly Hills. Getting re-elected to the city council would give him the seniority to be the presiding officer of the council, a position that doubles as mayor of the posh LA suburb.
Iranians started pouring into Southern California after the revolution of 1979 that ousted the Shah. Today, nearly a quarter of the 35,000 population of Beverly is of Iranian descent. The immigrants are highly educated and multilingual, yet for some reason sample ballots were sent out to voters in Farsi and English. Delshad, who opposed the bilingual ballots, told The Associated Press that, "The Iranian community is one of the most educated minorities in America and reads English well. The ballots only caused confusion, and were an insult to many Iranians."
The state requires alternative voting materials to assist immigrants who have low literacy levels because their language is "oral or unwritten," or at least 500 voting-age immigrants in a precinct speak a common language and have limited English language proficiency. The Stiletto wonders how many tax dollars were wasted on Farsi voting materials that were unneeded and unwanted - and why state election officials found it necessary to provide them in the first place.
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