CAC 20121213_Presentation_CVRACalifornia Voting
Rights Act
Justin Levitt
December 13, 2012
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
Today’s conversation
•A brief (and broad) overview of the
California Voting Rights Act
•Legal concepts, but not legal jargon
(which means that it will be oversimplified)
•Not legal advice or related to ongoing disputes
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
Frequent status quo
•Citywide elections “at large”
Vote for up to 5
•Each voter: 1 vote for each seat
160
George W.
09
John A.
09
Thomas J.
160
James M.
09
Andrew J.
160
Martin v. B.
09
William H.
160
John T.
160
James P.
09
Zachary T.
5-seat city council
EXAMPLE
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
At-large voting
•Officials accountable to whole
political unit
•Broader pool for candidates
•Avoids need to determine where
to draw district lines
•Can dilute minority votes
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
California Voting Rights Act
IF
•Voting is at-large
(everybody in city may vote for each candidate)
AND
•Voting is racially polarized
(minority, majority generally prefer different candidates)
THEN
•
At-large system can’t impair political power
of racial or language minorities
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
Potential remedies
•May move to districts
•May adopt alternative at-large voting system
that does not impair minority political power
―Limited voting
―Cumulative voting
―Ranked choice voting
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES
Further information
Justin Levitt
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
justin.levitt@lls.edu
LOYOLA
LAW SCHOOL | LOS ANGELES