Stanislaus County redistricting lawsuit proves need for independent panel | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- MALDEF lawsuit claims Stanislaus County maps dilute Latino voting strength.
- Only two Latinos have won office countywide in over 20 years despite growth.
- Editorial Board urges county to adopt independent redistricting commission.
The way Stanislaus County drew its 2021 supervisorial and county school board districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act and diluted the strength of the Latino vote, according to a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Attorneys for the Latino civil rights group argue the 2021 maps were drawn in a way that denies Latino voters an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of four voters who live in the county, was filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Sacramento in April.
“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. Sáenz, MALDEF president/general counsel. “Giving in to self-preservation over representation is a fundamentally anti-democratic act.”
Stanislaus officials, in a June complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, denied almost all of the complaints and said “relief sought by the plaintiffs would involve an unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.”
The county supervisorial and school board districts are identical. MALDEF argues the maps wered esigned to deny Latino voters a chance to elect the candidate of their choice. Common Cause, the Jakara Movement and Communities for a New California had asked the board to create two Latino-majority districts.
Only two Latinos — Supervisor Channce Condit in 2020 and school board member Luis Molina in 2005 — have been elected to office in the county in more than two decades. Since 2010, the lawsuit says, the share of Latino citizens of voting age has grown from 27.2% to 39% based on Census figures.
“Stanislaus County Latinos are severely underrepresented on both the Board of Supervisors and Board of Education,” MALDEF said in its lawsuit. “Latinos in Stanislaus County bear the effects of longstanding societal and economic discrimination, effects that are apparent in the areas of education, housing, employment and health.”
The plaintiffs — including voters Miguel Donoso, John Mataka, Vivian Amador Lopez and Juan Telles — are asking the court to order the county to create new maps that adhere to the Voting Rights Act.
The defendants include the supervisors, including Condit and the county school board members.
Who draws the lines is important
The Stanislaus County case does not carry the weight of the current redistricting of the state’s congressional map, but it is a reminder that having elected officials draw their own maps is usually a recipe for incumbents to consider themselves ahead of the interests of the community.
Proposition 50 is in response to President Donald Trump’s request that Texas come up with five more Republican-friendly congressional districts. The language in the proposition includes the return of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw the maps following the 2030 Census.
The citizens commission was created in 2008 and drew the first maps for congressional, Assembly, state Senate and Board of Equalization districts for the 2011 elections.
The Bee Editorial Board has favored citizens commissions to handle the work of redrawing maps that elected officials had previously used to protect their seats. We believe Stanislaus County can benefit from taking this work away from its supervisors.
Latinos are the majority population in the six counties between Merced and Kern, and are the plurality at 48.1% in Stanislaus County. However, Latinos fill only eight of 35 (22.9%) supervisorial seats. That data suggests incumbents are pretty good at protecting their seats.
Down the road from Stanislaus County, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Merced, has introduced a bill to have a citizens commission redraw the lines for Merced County’s supervisorial districts. Soria’s proposal is similar to other measures that Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed for Fresno, Kern, Riverside and San Luis Obispo counties to establish citizens commissions following the 2030 Census.
Citizens commissions have been in effect in Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara counties.
We believe all 58 counties can benefit from — and should have — a citizens commission.