Suit Filed Against the County of San Mateo to Establish an Equitable Voting System
San Mateo, CA -- A voting rights lawsuit was filed on April 14 in San Mateo County Superior Court challenging the discriminatory at-large election system that governs the county's Board of Supervisors elections. The suit alleges that the county is in violation of the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) for failing to rectify the vote dilution caused by the current at-large election system and neglecting to address the racially polarized voting patterns that characterize elections throughout the county.
The suit is being brought by six citizens from San Mateo County who are represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the Asian Law Caucus, the private law firm Arnold & Porter LLP, and voting rights attorney Joaquin Avila. Lawyers' Committee's Robert Rubin, who directs the organization's California Voting Rights Institute, said: "The time has come for San Mateo to join the ranks of all other counties in the state and abandon its discriminatory election system. The County's political power structure must accept the emerging political strength of its Asian and Latino communities."
Unlike at-large systems, district systems allow minority communities to exercise political power commensurate with their numbers. Despite Latinos and Asians each comprising approximately 25% of the county of San Mateo's population, only one Latino has occupied a seat on the Board since 1995. During that same period, not a single Asian has been a member of the Board.
Racially polarized voting occurs when the majority votes as a block to consistently defeat the electoral choices of minority communities. Fifty-seven of California's 58 counties have recognized the inherent unfairness of these circumstances in at-large election systems, and have converted to district elections. San Mateo stands alone in its refusal to jettison a policy that results in vote dilution for its Latino and Asian communities. Last year, the Board of Supervisors rejected a recommendation by a citizens' commission to at least put the issue of at-large versus district election systems to a vote by the county's residents.
Arnold & Porter's Beth Parker stated: "This litigation should encourage San Mateo to join the ranks of every other county in California and convert its at-large system for electing members of the Board of Supervisors to district elections. This way, its significant Latino and Asian populations will have a voice in local elections."
Voting rights attorney Joaquin Avila said, "The demographics are changing in the State of California, yet the political leadership of the State at the local level is sorely lacking in diversity. As the only county in the State having an at-large method of election to select its Board of Supervisors, when this method of election has been consistently demonstrated to dilute minority voting strength, Latinos and Asians in San Mateo County have no choice but to bring San Mateo County into the 21st century by filing this action."
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About the Lawyers' Committee and the California Voting Rights Institute:
For more than 40 years, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area has worked to advance, protect and promote the legal rights of communities of color, immigrants and refugees -- with a specific focus on low-income communities and a long-standing commitment to African Americans. Lawyers' Committee staff, working with hundreds of pro bono attorneys, provides free legal assistance and representation to individuals on civil legal matters through direct services, impact litigation and policy advocacy.
Lawyers' Committee has been the lead organization in the state enforcing the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). It has filed and won five previous CVRA cases, including suits against the city of Modesto and the Madera Unified School District. Lawyers' Committee officially launched the California Voting Rights Institute in March 2011. In addition to its litigation component, the Institute will be authoring and commissioning scholarly articles that help to elucidate existing election law principles while encouraging the adoption of new and creative concepts. For more information, visit www.lccr.com.
About Arnold & Porter LLP:
Arnold & Porter LLP is an international law firm of more than 700 lawyers with offices in Brussels, Denver, London, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. The firm, founded in 1946, maintains more than 25 practice areas spanning a broad spectrum of the law, with a primary focus on litigation, transactional matters, and regulatory issues.
About the Asian Law Caucus:
Founded in 1972, The Asian Law Caucus is the nation's first legal and civil rights organization serving low-income Asian Pacific American communities. The ALC focuses on labor and employment issues, housing, immigration and immigrant rights, student advocacy, civil rights and hate violence, consumer rights senior rights, and juvenile justice. As a founding affiliate of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, ALC also helps to set national policies in affirmative action, national security, voting rights, census, and language rights.
About Joaquin G. Avila:
Joaquin G. Avila is voting rights attorney with an extensive national voting rights background. In 1974, Mr. Avila joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a national Latino civil rights advocacy organization, where he devoted his career in litigation providing minority communities with access to the political process, serving as a staff attorney, director of organization's voting rights program, Regional Counsel in San Antonio, Texas and serving as President and General Counsel. In 1985, Mr. Avila established his private voting rights practice. Mr. Avila has successfully argued cases at the federal district court, appellate circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court levels. He is presently Executive Director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Seattle University School of Law.
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