Cities across the state have been switching from city-wide elections to district elections in an effort to comply with the California Voting Rights Act of 2001. But dozens of cities are resisting the change, and are now facing the specter of costly litigation if they don’t change their ways.
The city of Highland has joined a growing list of government agencies that have been sued or threatened with lawsuits under the Act, which allows members of ethnic, racial and language groups in California to more easily challenge a government agency on the basis that their votes are diluted in at-large elections.
Highland voters in November will consider a ballot measure that would establish a by-district election system.If approved, the measure would divide the city into five voting districts each with 10,528 to 10,725 residents.
The plan, Measure T, would create two districts with a majority of Hispanic voters, with a third being close to majority
“There are voters who feel they’re not achieving equal and fair representation under the at-large system,” Renee Van Vechten, associate professor of government at the University of Redlands, told the Redland Daily Facts. “The basic idea is if you have an at-large system, then the minority will never reach the majority.”
“What I hear from people is they don’t like the idea of district elections. They like their council members to be responsive to everybody, not just a select group of one-fifth of the population,” Highland Mayor Sam Racadio, told the paper.
Unfortunately for those people, the law may prefer otherwise.
State lawmakers passed the California Voting Rights Act in 2002, meant to expand the work of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed voting practices that discriminated against minority voters.
“The CVRA attempts to enhance the ability of members of “protected groups”—members of a race, color or language minority groups—to elect candidates of their choice by challenging a government agency’s at-large election system. If the groups can prove “racially polarized” voting is occurring in the at-large system, which is illegal under the CVRA, they can pressure the city or school district to change to a by-district system.”