LOS ANGELES – A Latino civil rights group is suing Stanislaus County and its officials over county redistricting maps that violate the federal Voting Rights Act and dilute the voting strength of Latino voters, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) filed a challenge to the county’s 2021 Board of Supervisors and Board of Education redistricting plans on behalf of four voters who live in the county. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. In the complaint, attorneys argue that the adopted maps were drawn in such a way as to deny Latino voters an opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. Attorneys say the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Too many redistricting line-drawers act to preserve their own political power, rather than to ensure that the voices of growing voter communities are well-reflected as the jurisdiction moves forward,” said Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel. “Giving in to self-preservation over representation is a fundamentally anti-democratic act.”
The lawsuit asserts that the County’s Board of Supervisors failed to draw a second Latino-majority voting district despite an increase in the percentage of Latinos in the county’s voter population. Supervisors adopted maps that lowered the Latino Citizen Voting Age Population (LCVAP) by 1 percent in the county’s only majority Latino district. The complaint alleges that despite the dramatic growth of the Latino population, the supervisors broke a large, geographically compact, Latino community into three districts rather than create a second Latino district.
According to the complaint, this resulted in districts that dilute the Latino vote and prevent them from electing their candidates of choice. The maps reinforce “longstanding societal and economic discrimination” that Latinos and other minority groups have historically dealt with in the county, attorneys say.
“The Stanislaus Board of Supervisors weakened Latino voting strength despite the growth of the Latino electorate,” said Ernest Herrera, MALDEF Western Regional Counsel. “The Voting Rights Act requires new maps that afford the Latinos of Stanislaus County the opportunity to elect county officials who represent their interests.”
Stanislaus County is divided into five supervisorial and five Board of Education districts that share the same boundary lines. The complaint says Latinos are underrepresented on both boards. In six supervisory elections in three districts since 2012, the Latino candidate lost five of the elections. Currently, the board has only one Latino supervisor, who represents the county’s one Latino-majority district. Since 2012, there have been four racially-contested elections to the Board of Education, and the Latino candidates lost all four elections.
MALDEF is asking the court to prevent the county from using the unlawful maps in any future elections for the Stanislaus Board of Supervisors or the Board of Education and to order the county to create maps that resolves the violation of the VRA and satisfy other statutory requirements. The voters bringing the case are Miguel Donoso, John Mataka, Vivian Amador Lopez, and Juan Telles.
“We look forward to obtaining justice for the Latino residents of Stanislaus County, who are entitled to a fair opportunity to elect candidates that represent their sizeable community to the County Board of Supervisors,” said Manuel F. Cachán, pro-bono co-counsel from an elite law firm.
The lawsuit names the members of the Stanislaus Board of Supervisors and the members of Board of Education, the Stanislaus County Chief Executive Officer, and the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters as defendants.
Read the complaint HERE.