Three Compton residents sue city, allege voting rights violations

Three Compton residents are suing the city for alleged violations of the California Voting Rights Act, contending that the city's elections are stacked against Latino candidates.

The complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges that the at-large elections for City Council seats have the effect of diluting the Latino vote. Three Compton voters -– Felicitas Gonzalez, Karmen Grimaldi and Flora Ruiz -– filed the suit against the city and City Clerk Alita Godwin.

City offices are closed on Friday, and the city attorney could not be immediately reached.

The mayor and the four members of Compton's City Council are African American. Compton was long seen as a primarily black community, but Latino residents now make up about two-thirds of the city's population. The suit alleges that although Latino candidates have run for council seats in a number of elections, no Latino candidate has been elected since at least 1999, and possibly ever.

Compton council members represent specific geographic districts within the city, but voting for each seat is not restricted to residents of the district. The suit alleges that the at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

A previous Times analysis of voting patterns in the cities of southeast Los Angeles County found that Compton was one of a number of cities with large immigrant populations and a pattern of extremely low voter participation. In at least three municipal elections since 2005, less than 10% of the voting-age population cast ballots, the analysis found.

-- Abby Sewell

Chart: A breakdown of Compton by race/ethnicity, as reported in the 2000 census. The most recent census estimates, released in 2009, show that the Latino population has continued to climb to about 65%, as the percentage of black residents dropped to 32%. Source: Mapping L.A., 2006-2008 American Community Survey.

Comments

[kuruc]

since most are ILLEGAL ALIENS, i hope they can't vote.

[Just saying]

Sure Compton has a large number of Latino's but what percentage are citizens (I won't even go into legal) and able to vote?

[Tom]

Assuming that the pie graph represents census data, if 56.7% of the Compton population is Latino, what percentage of the registered voters in Compton are Latino?

[Guillen]

How many of the Latino residents are eligible to vote? How many are resident aliens, or illegal aliens who cannot legally vote?

[WhatPartofIllegal]

Maybe the majority of the majority can't vote because they are illegal aliens?
Population and registered voter is not the same.

L.A. Times, maybe you could go ask these 'citizens' for their 'papers' and see them scurry into the shadows.

[Don Marshall]

Well if there are no LEGAL voters....

[Eva]

yeah but how much of the latino population can vote there here illegally maybe its time for them to back to their country

[Bradford Talamon]

"...Latino residents now make up about two-thirds of the city's population..."

"...The suit alleges that the at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001..."

Did I just miss something? It seems to me that the alleged "problem" here is not a violation of the California Voting Rights Act...the "problem" is that Latino voters are either not going to the polls to vote for Latino candidates or a significant percentage of them are voting for the African-American candidates...

...and that is not a violation of any law that I know of.

It could also mean that a significant percentage of the Latino residents in Compton are ineligible to vote because they are not legal residents of the United States.

[kvonl]

The answer is far simpler than a lawsuit: people need to vote. If people are illegal, then they don't have a right to have a say in our government.

[joe hunn]

...Human nature, whites did that to blacks over 60+ years ago
in Compton and now blacks are doing it to mexicans, racial-ethnic
discrimination is not limited to any one race, just as anglos
believed that blacks were not real humans, real citizens,
"some" blacks believe that mexicansn are just illegal aliens
unworthy of voting,

[LA LADAY]

I doubt that any voting rights violations occured. The city has a dwindling African American population and a growing Latino population, but the real factor is if Latinos registered to vote at the same percentage they make up in the population. Probaby not! Most African Americans are U.S. born citizens, thus able to vote simply by registering. Many Latinos residents are probably foreign born and here legally with a Green Card or illegally, thus not eligible to vote. The article also notes that in Compton less than 10% of the eligible residents casts ballots overall. So naturally the group with the most registrations will win all the elections. The plaintiffs need to focus more on registering more Latino voters all over the city if they want to be represented.

[James Andrews]

Let's set up a quota for every group that wants to be recognized. Kind of like Iraq. Why rely on who votes if we can play the race card? Interesting to watch as this fight is between Hispanics and Blacks. Where will Eric Holder find a victim?

[Don Marshall]

Well you need to be a LEGAL CITIZEN to vote....

[Ryan Dunning]

Compton needs to switch to the ranked voting method known as Single Transferable Vote (STV). STV would allow Compton to retain at-large elections, but at the same time would ensure that each ethnic group elects its proportionate share of representatives. Under STV, if 4 city council members are to be elected, then any group which makes up slightly more than 20% of the population is guaranteed a representative for each block of (slightly more than) 20% that they represent. Therefore, based on the population estimates above, latinos would be guaranteed 2 seats, african-americans 1 seat, and the remaining seat would go to either a latino that a significant number of african-americans found favorable, or an african-american that a significant number of latinos found favorable.

[Ryan Dunning]

Compton needs to switch to the ranked voting method known as Single Transferable Vote (STV). STV would allow Compton to retain at-large elections, but at the same time would ensure that each ethnic group elects its proportionate share of representatives. Under STV, if 4 city council members are to be elected, then any group which makes up slightly more than 20% of the population is guaranteed a representative for each block of (slightly more than) 20% that they represent. Therefore, based on the population estimates above, Latinos would be guaranteed 2 seats, African-Americans 1 seat, and the remaining seat would go to either a Latino that a significant number of African-Americans found favorable, or an African-American that a significant number of Latinos found favorable. See Fresno Ranked Voting for more info.

[A LA Times reader]

You have to be a legal resident to be a registered voter. If 66% of the city is Latino and only 10% of the residents are voting, then the Latinos are 1) not voting due to their lack of legal status in this country or 2) they love their African-american candidates.

[Larry K.]

Silly and racist. There are more whites than mulattos in the USA so where is the lawsuit over Obama getting elected ? Maybe these people should get a clue that just because a candidate is mexican it doesn't mean all the mexicans in the community are racist and will vote based on the candidate being the same race as them.