Justice to monitor elections Tuesday

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- Elections in parts of California, Wisconsin, New Mexico and South Dakota will be monitored for compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, officials said.

Besides prohibiting discrimination in the election process based on race or color, the Voting Rights Act requires certain covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance during elections.

Fresno and Riverside counties in California, and the city of Milwaukee are required to provide assistance in Spanish, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday in a release. Cibola and Sandoval in New Mexico and Shannon County in South Dakota are required to provide language assistance to American Indian voters. California's Alameda County is required to provide language assistance to Hispanic, Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino voters.

On Tuesday, California, Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey and South Dakota will hold party primaries and Wisconsin will conduct a recall election involving Gov. Scott Walker.