How Modesto unwittingly lifted minority candidates throughout California
Modesto’s regrettable role in a process that altered how voters over much of California choose city and school representatives surfaced in a recent university study looking at race in electoral reform.
People in the early 2000s may not have been aware that Modesto earnestly tried to get around a key part of the California Voting Rights Act aimed at helping minorities get elected. Fortunately, our city leaders at the time — and their lawyers — failed, leading to widespread change that has made local government agencies better reflect the diversity of their communities up and down the state.
We’re talking about district elections, or selecting representatives based on where they live, rather than at-large or across the whole city without regard to neighborhoods or minorities residing in them.
At-large elections put minority candidates at a disadvantage. No matter how concentrated in a given area, it’s difficult to get one of “their own” elected if votes for city council or a school board are cast from all corners of a city with mostly white voters.
In the early 2000s, 449 of California’s 476 cities used the at-large method, and most school districts did, too. Modesto had a hybrid, with candidates running for a designated seat — 1 through 6 — but the effect was the same, because seats did not correspond with geography and council members were chosen across all of Modesto.
The California Voting Rights Act, signed in 2002 by then-Governor Gray Davis, should have changed things for hundreds of cities and school districts. But hardly anyone switched to district elections voluntarily.
Modesto certainly didn’t, and became a test case for all of California when challenged in court, in 2004.
The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Modesto lost and had to pay $3 million to attorneys who had the audacity to force the city to do the right thing. Palmdale, in Los Angeles County, also resisted in a three-year court battle, finally agreeing to pay $4.5 million in a settlement.
Progressive attorneys then used Modesto and Palmdale to scare cities and school districts all over California into compliance. The Ceres Unified School District, noting Modesto’s example, quickly shelled out a $3,000 settlement and changed to district elections even though three of its five board members already were Latino.
“Many cities switched only after observing the high-profile court losses by the cities of Modesto and Palmdale,” reads the Nov. 25 report from the University of California, Riverside, called “Can states promote minority representation?”
Short-term results of the forced switch were puzzling here.
In its first district elections, Ceres Unified lost a Latina board member when she was ousted by a white woman.
And Modesto’s first stab at district elections, in 2009, put Dave Geer (who died in December 2014) on the City Council from west and south Modesto — in a district specifically crafted to boost minority chances — over a Latino opponent. The headline to a column in The Modesto Bee mused: “All that just for another white guy.”
However, UC Riverside concluded that overall, the California Voting Rights Act really is working. In other words, more minorities are being elected throughout the state thanks to district elections, even when the growing Latino population is factored.
On average, agencies across California now have 10% to 11% more minority office holders, roughly equal to about half of a city council seat. Among high-density Latino cities, the change is double, the study found.
And, despite a stuttering start for Modesto and Ceres Unified, both have had minority representation since, including Geer’s successor, Councilman Tony Madrigal.
“The CVRA has led, on average, to greater minority representation,” the study concluded, suggesting that other states follow California’s example if they are “interested in equal racial representation.”
And that’s a good thing, despite Modesto’s infamous and expensive foot-dragging.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
