The Court is willing to wait just a bit longer to issue its ruling in a voting rights case that has lingered in Southern California over the past year. The ACLU, on behalf of Latino activists, has sued Anaheim for a voting system that they say disenfranchises Latinos. The city is 53 percent Latino, but the current City Council is all white.
The City had heard a recommendation from its Citizens’ Advisory Committee. They had asked that district-based voting go on the June 2014 ballot. Instead, the Council rejected that plan and instead approved a plan that would maintain at-large elections but require council members to live in different districts.
The ACLU says that such a residency requirement does not fix the situation and will continue to dilute the minority vote.
However, the City believes, and will argue in court, that the changes represent a substantial reform to the City’s voting system and it should not be presumed to be discriminatory until it has a chance to prove itself as effective.
Read the full story at the Voice of OC.