The inclusion of bilingual voting ballots has been a major issue for the Chinatown community and the Chinatown Blogger has not been as diligent in following the process and reporting here on the blog. However, here is a quick and dirty history of the bilingual voting ballots.

2003 - The Chinese Progressive Association filed complaints with both the City of Boston and Secretary of State about voting rights violations inside polling places.
2005 - Based on 2003 and 2004 complaints, Department of Justice (DOJ) filed lawsuit against the City of Boston for violating the voting rights of limited English-speaking Chinese and Vietnamese voters. US District Court finalized a Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Boston and DOJ to provide increased bilingual assistance to Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese-speaking voters, and to launch Chinese and Vietnamese bilingual ballots. The Memorandum expires in 2008.
2007 - City of Boston successfully printed the Chinese bilingual ballot with transliterated candidate names in both the preliminary and final election for the special District 2 city council race (the eventual winner was Councilor Linehan). Secretary of State (Galvin) continued to oppose transliteration of candidate names on the ballot. Department of Justice asked the court to clarify whether a Chinese bilingual ballot must include candidate names. Galvin filed his opposition to the DOJ’s court motion and argued that transliteration of names were “imprecise” and did not belong on the ballot.

Today, the City Council passed a Home Rule Petition to extend having bilingual voting ballots. The [1] Home Rule Petitionwas filed by City Councilors Sam Yoon, Michael Ross and John Connolly. Today the City Council voted unanimously to extend the bilingual ballots. The next step will be to have Mayor Menino to sign the bill and then submit the bill to the State House. Boston.com has an article [2] here.