A federal judge has ruled that the way city council members are elected in Yakima, Washington disenfranchises Latino voters.
Last week’s surprising ruling comes exactly two years after the ACLU filed a federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the city.
The basis for the lawsuit was that Latinos make up about one-third of the voting-age population in Yakima. Yet, no Latino candidate has ever been elected to the city council.
The ACLU argued the problem was that council members are elected in a citywide vote. The lawsuit called for council member to instead be elected by district.
Now Judge Thomas Rice has concluded that Yakima’s election system “routinely suffocates the voting preferences of the Latino minority.” His preemptive ruling comes just as a trial was set to begin next month.
The judge has now set an October deadline for both sides to submit a proposal for district-based council elections. The city of Yakima could appeal in the meantime.
