"Farsi Election Materials Prompt BeHo Complaints"

See this report (pdf at 3, 5) and this report on complaints when the City of Beverly Hills, CA provided translations of materials beyond what which is required by the language provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
UPDATE: The report in the BH Weekly seemed to get right what I was trying to say, but it seems like the City News Service report (picked up by CBS) did not. It is not that the language assistance provisions of the VRA "do not apply" to cities. It is that in determining which languages are covered, we look at the county-wide level. The relevant legal test is in 28 CFR 55.9:

s 55.9 Coverage of political units within a county.
Where a political subdivision (e.g., a county) is determined to be subject to section 4(f)(4) or section 203(c), all political units that hold elections within that political subdivision (e.g., cities, school districts) are subject to the same requirements as the political subdivision.

Posted by Rick Hasen at February 15, 2007 09:06 AM