Localmedium impact · 6/10substantive200029

Council proposes new voting machines to be programmed in languages spoken by city's non-English speakers

Official:Amending Title 21 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled, “MISCELLANEOUS,” by adding a new Chapter 21-3100, entitled “VOTING MACHINE LANGUAGES REQUIREMENT;” all under certain terms and conditions.

Sponsor: Councilmember Oh

Introduced: January 23, 2020

: Committee on Law and Government

elections language accessvoting rights

No one voted on this bill

This bill was introduced in the 2020–2023 Council term and when that term ran out. The public record shows no committee vote and no floor vote at any stage, so no member of Council ever went on record for or against it.

That is not unusual here. Of the 8,465 bills introduced between 2000 and 2025, 1,624 lapsed without a single recorded vote. Ninety percent of bills that became law carry a roll call. Three percent of lapsed bills do. How this works.

Plain-Language Summary

This bill proposes to require that new voting machines in Philadelphia be programmed with languages other than English, which would benefit around 22% of speakers who don't speak English fluently or at all.

What This Bill Does

AI-written. Every figure is checked against the bill text.

Requires new voting machines in Philadelphia to be programmed with languages other than English.
Specifies that the voting machines must be capable of displaying at least 16 different languages.
Imposes this requirement on new voting machines, but does not specify whether existing machines must be retrofitted.
Requires the new voting machines to meet Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Westerman Wolf's mandate for accessibility, but this is already a requirement and this bill does not change anything about it.