Originally posted at The Liberal OC.
By Liberal OC Editorial Staff.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday on the ruling, dated last week, from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark V. Mooney which orders new district based elections for the City of Palmdale. The ruling illustrates whatthe City of Anaheim may be looking at as an outcome of a similar suit filed alleging violations of the California Voting Rights Act caused by the at-large election of city council members.
From the LA Times story:
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, who earlier this year found the city of Palmdale to be in violation of the California Voting Rights Act, has ordered the city to hold a new by-district election for its four City Council posts. In a ruling dated last week and received by the involved parties over the weekend, Judge Mark V. Mooney ordered that the special election, to replace the balloting for council seats held last month, is to be conducted June 3, the same day as the California primary.
Future elections are to be held in November of even-numbered years, to dovetail with state and federal balloting, in the expectation that such coordination will increase voter turnout.Read More.
We are confident that this ruling will not motivate the City Council majority to settle this suit before it goes to trial. We expect that the city will waste hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, in order to protect the current system that has allegedly disenfranchised Latino residents of the city, preventing them from having representation on the City council which is demographically balanced.