State elections official fired after poking fun at Spanish-speaking voters

[ccharles000]

A state elections official was fired Wednesday after remarks she made last weekend about Spanish-speaking voters.

Melinda Nickless , assistant director of the secretary of state's elections division, said election workers should speak slowly and loudly to non-English speakers, and then related an anecdote about her mother's encounter with a Spanish-speaking driver.

The comments came at a Saturday pre-primary seminar in Austin for Republican and Democratic county chairs. Initially, Nickless correctly answered a question by saying poll workers should try to place interpreters at polling places and offer to fetch help for non-English-speaking voters.

But then Nickless said election judges should be taught "to say really slow and loud: 'Sit down, I will call someone to help you. Un momento por favor, me telefono somebody.'"

She went on to recall her mother emerging from a Walmart to find that a lady had hit her car. The other lady said "no speak English," Nickless said, so her mother spoke in broken Spanish to say she'd go inside to call her husband.

"Un momento, mi telephone el esposo," Nickless quoted her mother saying. She said that when her mother returned, the lady was gone.

"Really mother," Nickless said . "Duh."

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/region/legislature/stories/2009/11/12/1112selby.html

[vadawg]

1. lol now this is funny, and it happens everyday when people cant communicate

She went on to recall her mother emerging from a Walmart to find that a lady had hit her car. The other lady said "no speak English," Nickless said, so her mother spoke in broken Spanish to say she'd go inside to call her husband.

"Un momento, mi telephone el esposo," Nickless quoted her mother saying. She said that when her mother returned, the lady was gone.

"Really mother," Nickless said . "Duh."

[snagglepuss]

2. Those comments didn't warrant her being fired. nt

[vadawg]

3. hell i forgot to comment on the firing part, yeah i didnt see anything there either

seems that the horse jumped the barn gate before the field caught fire..

[DeSwiss]

4. Maybe she should have told a more "acceptable...."

....Polish joke instead.

- Some people will never get it. Not until it's them in the crosshairs.

[snagglepuss]

5. Well speaking as a part Pole I have no problem with polish jokes. If people

actually take Polish jokes seriously its their loss. I'm more outraged by the person sneaking off when Nickless' mother went to make a phone call. That behaviour is despicable. People should grow up and as Jane Austen so rightly observed,"people should not take offense when none is intended."

[izquierdista]

7. Polish jokes

[snagglepuss]

8. No argumet there. nt

[izquierdista]

6. ....really slow and loud....

Yes, speaking louder has been scientifically shown to improve comprehension of non-speakers of a language. If you have a megaphone, you can achieve almost 100% comprehension, even with a tribesman from the hills of New Guinea who has never even heard English spoken. :eyes: