Fullerton, CA: The ACLU filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of Asian voters in the city of Fullerton, California. The suit alleges that Fullerton’s at-large style elections impede the ability of Asian voters to elect their preferred candidates. Unlike, its lawsuit in Yakima, WA, this complaint is based on the California Voting Rights Act as opposed to the federal law. Read the ACLU’s release from Wednesday below:
Paik v. City of Fullerton is a lawsuit alleging that the City of Fullerton’s at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), which prevents cities from imposing at-large elections that deny minority communities the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice or influence the outcome of elections. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Jonathan Paik, a representative of Fullerton’s sizeable Asian-American population, alleging that the city’s current at-large system for electing city council members denies large segments of the community — especially Asian Americans — a voice in how their city is governed. Under Fullerton’s at-large election system, all five city council members are elected by every voter in the city, regardless of where the candidate and voter live, resulting in members who are unaccountable to many communities they purport to represent. District elections, like those recently adopted in Anaheim, however, would require each of the council members to live in the district they represent and be elected by voters in that district, providing all voting residents, especially minorities, with government representatives that are responsive to their concerns. Fullerton has a population of just over 135,100, according to the U.S. Census, making it one of the largest cities in California to use at-large elections.
We think that the city of Fullerton does not do anything wrong in voting. They have voting instructions in all of the foreign Asian languages. We think that all voting material should be printed only in English. If they cannot speak or understand English then they should not vote!