COUNTY AGREES TO STUDY ARMENIAN BALLOT NEEDS.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

Recognizing the Southland's huge Armenian population, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to study the cost and need of making voting materials available in Armenian.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich introduced the motion authorizing the study, which is expected to be completed in 30 days.

``We have the largest number of Armenians outside of Armenia - more than 60,000 people in Glendale,'' said Tony Bell, Antonovich's spokesman. ``And these citizens, like the rest of Los Angeles County citizens, deserve access to our electoral process in the Armenian language.''

The county already offers voting materials in Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and English.

Officials at the Armenian National Committee's western region office, which has been working with Antonovich's staff to get the ballots in Armenian, said they are encouraged by the first step.

``It is our belief that every American citizen has a right to vote and it is our government's obligation to protect and ensure the right of all citizens,'' said Ardashes Kassakhian, director of government relations for the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region. ``We want to make sure that the county finds the need and does not make excuses for excluding Armenians.''

Not having ballots in Armenian has discouraged Armenians who don't read or write English fluently from voting, Kassakhian said.

``It's ridiculous to have all these other languages and when you have the third largest city of Los Angeles County, Glendale, where 40 percent of the population is Armenian, and not have the voting material in the Armenian language, it completely disenfranchises people,'' Kassakhian said. ``You're breeding a group of potential voters that are disenfranchised and disillusioned.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com