The federal Voting Rights Act turned 50 this week. At the same time the nation marked that history, a modern voting rights case has been playing out in the Pacific Northwest.
Yakima, Washington, is more than 40 percent Latino. But by all accounts, the city has never elected a Latino candidate to City Council. That's about to change.
Because of the way candidates are advancing
this week, Yakima is now guaranteed at least one Latino council member after the general election this fall. In fact, the city could potentially fill three or four of the City Council's seats with Latino representatives. OPB All Things Considered host Kate Davidson spoke with
Mike Faulk, politics reporter for the Yakima-Herald Republic
, to find out why.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Q&A with Mike Faulk
Kate Davidson: This week Yakima held its first primary under a new districting system. Can you describe how the old system worked versus this new one?
Mike Faulk: Yes. The old one was a combination of at-large and district voting. What you had was three at-large positions that were voted on city-wide and four district positions that were voted on at the district level in the primary, but then went city-wide in the general election. Now what Yakima has for the first time are seven districts and every single city council seat is voted on out of those districts in the primary and general. So there's no more at-large voting.
KD: This all came about because of a lawsuit that was based on the Voting Rights Act. Can you recap the heart of that case and the judgment delivered?
MF: It was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Latino residents who said 'Latinos are not getting a voice under the current election system. The candidates of their choice are not being elected, and the issues that are important to them aren't being represented.'
So the ACLU said that under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, if you can show that there's this history of racially polarized voting, then the system is in violation and a court can order it to be changed. The judge in the Eastern District Court of Washington agreed and in February ordered these new elections.
KD: One of the twists of all this is that Yakima is still appealing the lawsuit that resulted in these districting changes. Is the city likely to drop that appeal once this new group of council members is in office?
MF: That will be interesting, because a majority of candidates who are running have said that they will rescind the appeal. But they've got some real questions to face just because of the costs of the litigation. The city has already spent more than $1.1 million defending it, and back in June the same judge ordered the city to pay $1.8 million to the ACLU. If they decide to rescind that they will have to answer some questions about the bill that the city is left with. I think it will be a complicated decision for them to make but I think it is one they will have to look at.
KD: Has this been a deeply felt issue in the community?
MF: This is something that has really impacted the community and has been divisive. There are a lot of scars, emotions that have been boiling as Yakima's immigrant and Latino population continues to grow — we continue to approach 50/50 in terms of population. This is the next element of that. Council meetings addressing this issue, addressing the appeal have been very emotional. So after these elections, and a new council is sworn in, it will be really interesting to see whether there's a healing process or not.
