NAMPA, Idaho — Canyon County Commissioners have known for six years that a resolution banning county communication was "constitutionally infirm," records show.
County legal staff made the warning in a memorandum dated Oct. 24, 2013 that was shared with the Idaho Press last week. The Nampa-based newspaper reports the commissioners will consider rescinding the resolution on Monday.
The English-only rule was made in 2006, by then-commissioners David Ferdinand and Robert Vasquez. It barred county communication in any languages other than English, with an exception for court functions.
County spokesman Joe Decker says the rule was only for written communication, though that language isn't included in the resolution.
In the memorandum, legal staffers warn the resolution was "not grounded in logic or the law."
"Furthermore, our office believes that the resolution facially violates the equal protection clause of both the state and federal constitutions, and has, therefore been invalid from the beginning," wrote Brad Goodsell, then the civil deputy in the Canyon County Prosecutor's Office who still works for the county.
Although the county spokesman now says the 2006 resolution had nothing to do with elections training, as recently as November 2018, the Idaho Press discovered officials were instructing poll workers not to speak in Spanish to voters.
County spokesman Joe Decker said the election training had nothing to do with the old resolution but was based on "inherited" training materials. When the Idaho Press requested to review those training materials, county officials said they hadn't found them yet.
Regarding the 2018 instructions to poll workers, Decker said election staffers were concerned that Spanish-speaking poll workers might not be fluent enough to assist Spanish-only voters with complicated topics. Canyon County Clerk Chris Yamamoto, who oversees county elections, reversed the no-Spanish policy days before the election, after the Idaho Press questioned officials about it. By that time, more than 7,000 people had already voted early.
Canyon County has the largest Hispanic population in Idaho. U.S. Census Data estimates 33,000 Canyon County residents speak a language other than English at home, and 12,000 people speak English "less than well." About 8 percent or 95,000 of Idaho's eligible voters in November 2018 Hispanic or Latino, according to the Pew Research Center.
Antonio Hernandez, voting rights associate at Conservation Voters for Idaho, said they were extremely disappointed by the county's "lack of leadership." Conservation Voters for Idaho partnered with the ACLU of Idaho to work on Latino and Hispanic voter engagement during the November 2018 election season.
"Trust in those who oversee elections is essential to our democracy," Hernandez wrote in an email statement to the Idaho Press. "The lack of leadership of Canyon County election officials has likely prevented Hispanic citizens from exercising their right to vote which is disappointing and unacceptable."
Decker said the county is anticipating a Census 2020 count that will mandate the county begin producing all election materials in Spanish. Until then, Decker said elections staff will work on recruiting more bilingual poll workers.
"We want to make it a fair and impartial election and make it easy for every single citizen of voting age to vote," Decker said.
Canyon County commissioners are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. on Monday to consider rescinding Resolution 06-173. The meeting was added to the agenda at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, according to the commissioners' office, a day after the Idaho Press inquired about the resolution.
