Hispanics Take a Page from '60s to Add Clout

WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Gary Fields

July 20, 2012

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577525052155949924.html

When Lillie Dobson moved to Compton, Calif., in 1966, the population was predominantly white. Over the years she watched as white residents moved out and blacks moved in. Now 73 years old and a City Council member, Ms. Dobson is watching another change sweep the city, one with equally profound consequences for the Los Angeles suburb and its government.

A generation ago, African-Americans made up three-quarters of the residents. The latest Census shows two-thirds of Compton's 96,000 residents are Hispanics. That change was the catalyst behind a lawsuit, settlement and election in June that will give Hispanics a major leg up when residents elect the next City Council in 2013.

Amid changing racial and ethnic demographics in Compton and elsewhere, voting-rights laws that were crafted in the 1960s to help African-Americans are now being used once again, but this time by new minority groups.

There are hundreds of challenges and proposals at the local, state and federal level that have been spawned by changes in the way America looks, legal experts say. The Justice Department, for example, filed a complaint earlier this year against a Nebraska county, alleging that election materials weren't provided in Spanish.

"What's happening in Compton is not unique," said David Perez, an attorney at Perkins Coie who has worked with the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law, where he wrote the Washington state voting-rights law. Mr. Perez said changes at the local level will filter up the political food chain, because "this is the pipeline where folks get the experience" to run for other offices.

According to recent Census data, Hispanics, already the largest minority group in the U.S., are also the fastest-growing demographic. Data released in May showed that between July 2010 and July 2011, whites of European ancestry accounted for less than half of the newborn children, the first time in U.S. history that has happened.

The change has come rapidly. Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said when he raises the issue of voting rights for Hispanics during meetings with local leaders, he is often asked why no one complained until fairly recently. "I say, we didn't exist," he said.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, the foundation of many of the current challenges, was created to stop voting discrimination aimed primarily at African-Americans. It was amended in the 1970s to include other minorities. Over the years, states including California patterned laws after the federal one.

One provision of the act tackled methods localities used to deprive minorities of their voting rights, such as restrictive registration practices and inaccessible polls. A second dealt with more subtle issues, such as the widespread practice of electing local representatives on a citywide or countywide basis, which had the effect of diluting the influence of minority voters.

It was a similar provision in California's version of the law that Hispanic residents in Compton sought to use in a court challenge. While City Council members had to live in the districts they represented, any of the city's registered voters could cast ballots for any council member.

A lawsuit filed in 2010 challenged that voting process, saying the citywide voting diluted the Hispanic vote and effectively kept Hispanics off the City Council even though some city districts were almost 100% Hispanic.

The lawsuit sought to have only those citizens who live in certain districts be able to vote for their council members.

"We're not saying you have to be Latino to represent Latinos," said Gay Grunfeld, the San Francisco lawyer who handled the lawsuit. "We're saying the persons preferred by the Latinos have not been able to get elected. There's room at the table for everybody."

Ms. Dobson, who is black and who has sat on the City Council since 2003, said she wanted to challenge the lawsuit. She contended that the problem for Hispanics was simpler: Hispanic voters didn't turn out in enough numbers. In the end, the city declined to spend money on a court case and settled. "The timing was kind of bad. I got outvoted," she said.

The settlement called for council members to put before voters an amendment to the city charter that restricts the council district elections to the voters of the specific districts. Voters approved the measure 65% to 35%. About 11% of the city's 42,000 registered voters participated.

"A lot of the Hispanics live in my district," said Ms. Dobson. "If they want to be elected, get to it," she said. Ms. Dobson, recalling her parents fighting for the right to vote in Mississippi, added she now supports the move. "I want them to get the opportunity that we got."

Elias Acevedo, one of the candidates who tried unsuccessfully to win office before moving out of the city, said the change should have come "a long, long time ago.…The citywide voting was not right."

The next step is for city officials to redraw the four districts. The city has until Oct. 1 to finish. Candidates can file after that. The next council races will take place in April.