About Translate The Vote
Translate the Vote designs, translates, publishes, and shares non-partisan voter registration & education resources for voters in the United States. We provide information in English and many other languages.
We do not use AI. All translated documents (including this website) are drafted by humans, translated by humans, and proof-read by humans. While we recognize AI is a potentially powerful tool, we also believe that AI is currently not up to the task of translating when the stakes are high- including voting. Read more about our relationship with AI below.
By connecting translators, community leaders, artists, graphic designers, and voters around the world- we make voter education accessible to more people.
Voter resources created by Translate the Vote are free for non-commercial use. We will never paywall or restrict access to our work based on ability to pay. You are welcome to use these resources, including our printables, for any non-commercial use. Please do not paywall or charge people to use the information we provide.
Our resources are accurate to the best of our knowledge at publication time. But in US politics things can sometimes change quickly! If you see information that you believe is inaccurate, mistranslated, doesn’t include alt text, or otherwise needs some attention- please let us know via the Contact page on our website or by email at Angie@TranslateTheVote.org .
Why do plain language English resources matter?
“Plain language (also called plain writing or plain English) is communication your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it.” Learn more from Center for Plain Language.
Voting is also something we don’t do very often- most cities only have 2 election at year at most, we don’t get much opportunity to practice! Voting can be confusing even for voters who are comfortable reading or speaking English. Voting laws vary by state, laws change over time, and voter education materials are often poorly designed.
Many of the words we use to talk about voting (provisional voting, ballot curing, electioneering, etc) are specialized terms that most people don’t see or hear often. Plain writing avoids unnecessary complicated words, and explains any necessary but unfamiliar voting terms clearly.
Why do translated resources matter?
Voters in the US have a legal right to assistance during the entire voting process. This includes assistance registering to vote, assistance each time they vote either at a polling place or by mail-in-ballot (specifics vary based on state, city, and county requirements). People can get help voting if they have issues like sight disorders or or need physical help filling out a ballot or using a ballot marking device.
Voters also have a right to language support and translation assistance, and in some places there are ballots available in languages other that English. Bringing a translator to your polling place is a right in all place, and translated voter info is a legal right in some places & some languages, but this still makes it hard for a lot of people to independently learn about elections, voting, and their rights as voters.
We believe all voters should have access to educational voting materials in their preferred language. We also know most smaller cities and towns lack the resources and expertise to design and translate multilingual voter education materials.
We’re doing our best to make up for the short-fall between what the world should be, and the world as it currently is. We can’t legally translate ballots or official election materials, but we (with your help) can translate general info and/or compile translated info from other sources into clear accurate resources.
Why are manual translations necessary? Isn’t Google translate good enough?
The stakes are high for civil translators – from the ballot box, to hospitals, courthouses, and public assistance offices – and translation is as much an art as a science. We can’t assume that free tools like google translate or an LLM like ChatGPT will provide accurate information in English, let alone an accurate translation.
Producing accurate, consistent translations requires the work of experienced data wranglers, translators, proofreaders, and editors. Even type-setters and printers may need specialized skills or equipment to design & print translated materials, especially for languages that use non-English characters or which are read from right to left. A portion of our budget is used to compensate these experts for their time & skills.
“In translation for official election materials, the translator is the intermediary between the civic process and a language community. The translator must be accurate and consistent across all election materials. It is a high-stakes task.”
Source: Center for Civic Design
About AI
We recognize that AI is a powerful tool with a lot of potential, but in 2026 AI is still prone to errors, hallucinations, and odd flights of fancy. While AI can be a useful tool in many situations, even translating some documents, but not currently in high stakes civic translations.
As friends at the Center for Civic Design explain in their Translating for
Elections Guide, “For many bilingual speakers, translation is an everyday activity with
low and high stakes. Stakes are low when we translate at the grocery
store. Stakes are high when we translate medical information for a
loved one.”
Providing someone with inaccurate information may make it more difficult or even impossible to vote. While voter education isn’t as serious as translating medical, legal, or safety information- the stakes are high, and we risk disenfranchising the people we’re trying to help. For the moment (May 2026) AI based translation is not, in our opinion, an appropriate tool for our needs.
Current Focus- Midterm Elections in our focus states
You can see our current resources on our Federal Voting Info Hub and state-specific resources on our State Voting Info Hub. We are currently working on producing election focused materials for our current slate of states & regions: Maine, New York City, Georgia, and Florida. We hope to expand that list for the general election in 2028, but that largely depends on funding and volunteer availability.
It is possible (even likely) that our list of supported states and languages will expand as the 2026 general election approaches, the scope of that expansion depends largely on funding and volunteer enthusiasm. If you’d like to support our work financially click here to donate to our GoFundMe campaign, or check out the other ways you can help here.