Heller has right idea on ballots

It's difficult to find fault with the bill that U.S. Rep. Dean Heller introduced to Congress this week that would require English-only ballots for federal elections.

Printing such multi-lingual ballots, he says, costs local governments millions of dollars in printing costs, which is argument enough for discontinuing their use.

Heller's point in introducing the bill is that ballots printed in Spanish work against national unity. While the accuracy of that statement is difficult to gauge, many of Heller's constituents in Nevada have been vocal in support of English-only legislation beyond ballots, including designating English as the country's official language. That's a much larger issue than Heller is taking on here, however.

Our question is why are the multi-lingual ballots necessary? How many U.S. citizens cannot speak English well enough to vote? Surely there are some, such as people who moved here and became citizens late in life.

But we doubt that English-only ballots would impair the ability of a significant amount of people to participate in the process. And those residents it does impact should be given ample opportunity to learn English well enough to carry out their civic duty.

Diversity and tolerance is a good thing in this country, as is the ability to speak other languages. But the nation's business is conducted in English and that includes voting.

• This editorial represents the view of the Nevada Appeal Editorial Board.