CHICAGO – Voting is a basic civic duty in a democracy. In 1975, the U.S. Congress added language-access provisions to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Under Section 203 of that amended act, jurisdictions must provide language assistance if more than 10,000 or 5 percent of voting-age citizens belong to a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates and do not speak English very well. The Ukrainian community of Cook County in Illinois has a population that fits this description, based on the 2010 Census.

One of the goals of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America-Illinois Division (UCCA-Illinois) is “to coordinate and consolidate development of organized Ukrainian life in the U.S. and strive to increase the importance and role of the Ukrainian American community in the civic and cultural life of this country.”