Translating Ballots
From the July 2007 World Almanac Newsletter:
Lost in Translation: A Rose By Any Other Name
Who are you planning to vote for in the presidential primaries? Virtue Soup? Oh Bus Horse? Sticky Rice? Massachusetts State Secretary William Galvin has pointed to these candidates names as a few of the ways identities are lost in translation when candidates’ names are translated into Chinese characters on the ballot as required by a justice department agreement. Finding no Chinese character for Romney, however, translators select characters that could be used to match the sound of each syllable, muddying the meaning of names. "Virtue Soup" is a potential transliteration of Fred Thompson. Barack Obama might be read as "Oh Bus Horse," and Mitt Romney could be either "Sticky Rice" or "Uncooked Rice." Galvin’s own name could be construed as "High Prominent Noble Educated," for one, or as "Stick Mosquito."
While the translations are amusing, there are serious issues at stake, most prominent among them keeping voters from being disenfranchised for lack of a readable ballot. Galvin advocates translating the ballots into Chinese for the most part, but wants the names to remain in Roman characters. But voting rights advocates say there are other options to avoid awkward translations, such as allowing candidates to offer their own character variations or mimicking the way Chinese newspapers transliterate the names.
Read the whole June newsletter: http://www.worldalmanac.com/newsletter/200707WAE-Newsletter.html