MORROW, Ga. — Morrow City Council leaders made a historic move after they passed an ordinance that would allow the use of multi-language ballots in future city elections.
Now, one of the hottest controversies in Clayton County, in the City of Morrow, can be put to rest after the new move.
It’s been such a heated argument in Morrow that a council member called a colleague “un-American” for wanting multi-language ballots.
The legislation started as a petition. Morrow City Council Member Van Tran and volunteers went door-to-door getting enough signatures to get the petition on the city council's table.
City Council members then voted in an August 8 meeting to make the petition a referendum, which would have put the proposed question of "Should the City of Morrow use bilingual ballots on all future city elections?" to a vote on an official ballot in the November 2023 city election. A Clayton County attorney then shut this plan down after they said they would "instruct the Clayton County Elections superintendent to not all the question" on the ballot.
Leaders felt they were left no other choice which led them to vote at an August 22 meeting to cancel that referendum and make the proposal an ordinance where it passed unanimously.
In the meeting, Morrow Mayor John Lampl asked the audience to raise their hands if they were in favor of the new ballots and those who opposed.
Lampl also asked each member of City Council if they had a solution. After a debate, the council then decided to adopt the resolution.
Supporters of multi-language ballots, led by Morrow City Council Member Van Tran, called the initial referendum a victory.
“It’s a victory for the community, finally the people’s voice being heard,” Tran previously said before the motion was passed.
Tran previously said she was working to determine if Morrow, in fact, might actually be required by the federal Voting Rights Act to print ballots in multiple languages because of the city’s growing minority populations--never mind any ordinance or referendum.
According to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, in those jurisdictions where the voting age population of a minority reaches a certain threshold, "The requirements of the law are straightforward: all election information that is available in English must also be available in the minority language so that all citizens will have an effective opportunity to register, learn the details of the elections, and cast a free and effective ballot."
Council member Tran initially opposed the new ordinance in the August 22 meeting, then changed her vote to abstain. It is unclear why the council member decided to vote in this manner.