Obtaining driver's licenses & voting in non-English-speaking countries? (tax, legally)

[M1M2M3]

Are there any non-English-speaking countries which:

a) Require that all driver's-license applicants to complete paperwork and testing in the official or de-facto language of said countries?

b) Require that all voting be conducted in the official or de-facto langauge of said countries?

Are there? I'm curious.

In most, if not all, US states the driver's-license tests and paperwork can be submitted in numerous languages despite all road signs being in English and English being the de-facto and common language of the US.

Anyone who even supports requiring all applicants to complete drivers-license tests and paperwork in English is usually labelled racist and/or xenophobic.

The same can be applied to the US voting process.

[That Ottawa One]

There are around 180-190 countries in the world that don't have English as an official language, so you may have to narrow down your question a tad.

As far as voting goes, I think you need to be a citizen of most countries in order to be legally entitled to vote there, whatever the official language(s) may be. If you pass that hurdle, then the voting usually means using a pencil to write a check mark beside a candidate's name, so I don't think use of English is very relevant.

For a driver's license, I can only speculate that if a government can afford to do it, it will allow newcomers to write the license exam in either an official or non-official language, if they have the budget to make non-official language copies of the exam available. Having a driver's license makes a newcomer to a country better able to become self-sufficient and find employment. The faster they can do it, no matter their official language capability, the better. They can get a driver's license first, and a job, and improve their new language skills afterward. Makes sense to me, at least, if that is in fact the reasoning.

Were you thinking of a particular country/countries?

[jtur88]

European countries are quite strict about drivers licenses, but in most other countries, a local DL will probably be issued on sight to any person with a foreign drivers license and a legitimate address and resident vise for that county. I had no trouble getting one in Jordan.

In America, the two main reasons for a drivers license are to collect local tax revenue, and to make sure the police have a way to find you, which is why you have to keep you address up to date, and keep getting a new one every time you move to another state. Other countries probably also recognize those civil control benefits.

[Chava61]

Many other countries have national identity cards so the driver licenses are not needed for identification purposes. In order to vote one would need to show their national identity card rather than a driver license in such country. Also some countries voting systems are by the voter picking the paper with the symbol of the political party that they wish to vote for and putting into an envelope which they will seal before depositing in a box at the voting location.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by Chava61

Many other countries have national identity cards so the driver licenses are not needed for identification purposes. .

Americans have a Constitution, so, unless driving a car, nothing is needed for identification purposes (except in Arizona). I have a passport, which satisfies all requirements for identification, and it contains no address, not even a state of residence.

If (and only if) you are driving a car, why is there a compelling need for the police to know your current address?