The bill also stipulates that the 58 counties that include the largest Indian reservations must provide bilingual ballots to Indian voters.

Before then, bilingual ballots were only required if a group with limited English ability made up 5 percent of a county's voting-age population.

Chinese-Americans, who make up about 3 percent of the city's total population, did not qualify for bilingual ballots.

The new law required bilingual ballots in counties where more than 10,000 residents spoke the same foreign language and were not proficient in English.

Their effect was to require bilingual ballots in some places and translators in others, when needy voters constituted 5 percent of a jurisdiction's population.

Dissatisfied Chinese-American community groups still want bilingual ballots for the Sept. 13 primary, and may take the issue to court.

During school board elections in Chinatown in 1996, for instance, some precincts ran out of bilingual ballots at 8 a.m.

Prior to the law's passage, counties were required to provide bilingual ballots only if a group with limited English ability made up 5 percent of the voting-age population.

There was no need for bilingual ballots; the shop steward told you who to vote for, if you voted at all.

Conservative legislators also opposed requiring states with large Spanish-speaking populations to provide bilingual ballots.