'08 showdown: Virtue Soup vs. Sticky Rice

The Boston Globe’s Frank Phillips has a fun piece today about the inherent problems of ensuring elections are as accessible as possible to the broad spectrum of U.S. voters.

In Massachusetts, a 2005 agreement with the federal government required state election officials to prepare ballots with Chinese characters in places with large Chinese populations. Unfortunately, something can get lost –-- or added –-- in the translation.

Mitt Romney can be translated as Sticky Rice, for example, and Fred Thompson as Virtue Soup.

Pointing to such examples, Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin is challenging the accord with the feds, arguing that differences between the languages create problems. English names do not translate directly, but phonetically, and with Chinese characters embracing a wide range of meanings for similar sounds, well, confusion can reign.

Galvin’s critics say if there’s any translation problem, it lies with his understanding of how to resolve such a problem. Just use the same characters that readers find in a Chinese-language newspapers, they say.

We're especially curious about the translation possibilities for Republican presidential longshot Tom Tancredo, who as part of his assault on efforts to revise immigration laws is calling for an end to all multi-lingual ballots.

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: Sec. William F. Galvin; Credit: Neal Hambert/Bloomberg News