For the first time in US history, voters in the Detroit area were able to access Arabic ballots in a state-organised election, a move that advocates hope will increase turnout and political engagement in the Arab-American community.The ballots were available in the southeast Michigan cities of Dearborn and Hamtramck, just outside Detroit – home to large Arab populations – in the state’s primary on Tuesday.“The question is: Why not? In a community where you know that roughly 50 percent of households speak a second language, primarily Arabic, why would you not offer greater accessibility to those who want to participate in our democracy? And that was really the premise behind the whole thing,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who helped lead the push for the Arabic ballots, told Al Jazeera.
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