Its official, the Yakima, Washington city council will now elect its members from seven single-member districts, two of which will have large Latino voting populations. The city had been sued by the ACLU for its at-large voting system and the effect it had on the Latino community. A federal district court found in favor the ACLU and directed both the city and the ACLU to offer a redistricting map that would afford the Latino population better representation. The court this week, chose the ACLU map.
Read.
[…] This situation is ripe for vote dilution lawsuits under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Yakima, Washington is another […]
[…] city of Yakima lost a voting rights lawsuit against its at-large city council elections. Now the ACLU, which filed the […]
[…] voted this week to give themselves more time to decide if the council will appeal a recent federal court ruling invalidating its at-large method of electing city council members. The Hispanic population in the […]
[…] decided not to appeal a recent federal court decision overturning its at-large election system and approving a district map drawn by one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit; the ACLU. Read more in the Yakima […]