NY bill requires voting materials written in Russian

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New York becomes the first state in the nation requiring voting materials to be translated into Russian under a bill being signed by the governor today.

Governor Paterson will sign the measure this morning in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, home of the largest Russian-speaking population outside the former Soviet Union.

Brooklyn Democrat Carl Kruger sponsored the measure in the Senate. He says it will empower the Russian-American community to participate in a process from which they have long felt excluded.

The new law affects municipalities with a million or more people, including New York City.

This afternoon, Paterson will sign a bill banning the word "Oriental" from state publications. The term has come to be considered an ethnic slur for Asians.

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