(a) In election wards in the District of Columbia in which non-English speaking persons who speak the same language constitute 5 percent or more of the eligible voting population, as determined by the Statistical Office of the District of Columbia government, the Board of Elections and Ethics (hereinafter in this section referred to as the “Board”) shall cause all election materials, including, but not limited to, ballots, voting instructions, and voter pamphlets, to be supplied in both the native language of such non-English speaking eligible voters and English.
(b) The Board may by regulation adopt lesser percentages of non-English speaking persons in a particular ward or precinct who would be sufficient to obtain election materials in a language other than English, and may by regulation, establish procedures to allow non-English speaking persons to participate in the electoral process where such non-English speaking persons do not constitute 5 percent or more of the eligible voting population in 1 ward or precinct.