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.