Amid a tense election season, a Korean translator and activist is calling out a Harris County election judge who she said forced her and other translators to stand outside a Houston polling place, barring them from effectively helping voters.

Dona Kim Murphey said she and roughly 10 other volunteers at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center were instructed to stand in the parking lot Sunday afternoon, beyond the 100-foot markers that draw a boundary for where people can electioneer. Murphey said she thought translators typically were allowed to stay in the polling place to offer help.

But Sonya Aston, Harris County's elections administrator, said what Murphey and others were doing was against the rules. Ballots are printed in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese. People who need help with another language are supposed to bring their own translator, Aston said. In her view, it shouldn't be that they are approached and asked if they need help in line at the polls.

"That's simply not allowed," Aston said.

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Murphey said ads in Korean media and other outlets encouraged people to vote Sunday, because others had volunteered to be there to help translate. She said the trouble first arose because students were also at the center to try to get names on a petition for a Korean language ballot in future elections. She said that behavior stopped as soon as the students were told not to do it.

A group of people chatting in Korean just outside the polling place grew, however, and that's when Murphey said the judge -- who presumably could not understand them -- told the translators they needed to offer their services beyond the electioneering line.

"Practically speaking, it means that the only way to offer our services is to basically flail around, jumping up and down and screaming, to try to get somebody's attention so that they know translation is available," she said, adding, "We were suppressed."

Law enforcement and the clerk's office were called to the site, Murphey said. (Ted Cruz, coincidentally, also came to cast his ballot.) Murphey, who posted several videos documenting the incident to Facebook, said she plans to explore legal action.

The Houston Chronicle is participating in Electionland, a ProPublica project that will cover access to the ballot and problems that prevent people from exercising their right to vote during the 2018 election. This story is part of that project.

You can help us by signing up now.Text VOTE to 81380. You can also WhatsApp at us at +1 850 909-8683 or reach us through Facebook Messenger here: http://m.me/electionland

emily.foxhall@chron.com

Twitter.com/emfoxhall

