Civil Rights Chief Reviews Voting Rights at LWVS Luncheon

Though Section 4B of the Voting Rights Act was struck down by the Supreme Court in June, 2013, there are still many other enforceable sections of the law that do protect the rights of citizens to vote. That was the subject of a talk by David J. Kennedy, Chief of the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District to the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale on October 18 at the Scarsdale Golf Club.

Section 4 required that jurisdictions of the country with a history of voter discrimination get pre-clearance from the court before making changes to their voting laws. Even without this provision, the U.S. Attorney's office in New York continues to bring cases against districts with discriminatory practices.

Kennedy reviewed a case against Port Chester where according to the 2000 census Latinos constituted 46% of the village's population but failed to win seats on village boards in village-wide elections. As the village had no voting districts, at-large voting denied minorities the opportunity to get elected.

They Department of Justice proved via demographic and regression analysis that the race of a candidate could be correlated with their election results in a certain district. They used this data to demand that Port Chester form voting districts. In the ruling the Judge opted to institute a "cumulative voting" process where each voter is given multiple votes that they can allocate to candidates in whatever quantity they choose. For instance, if there are six candidates for the Board of Education, each voter is given six votes that can be given in multiples to a desired candidate.

As a result, following the redistricting, Port Chester elected their first Hispanic and first Latin American candidates in history. In fact, the first Latin American elected to the Village Board in Port Chester was Luis Merino who works at Scarsdale's Edgewood Elementary School.

Kennedy also reviewed cases brought by the Department of Justice to require that voting materials be available in foreign languages when a jurisdiction included high percentages of Spanish or Arabic speakers for example. If the census indicates that large populations of foreign speakers are present, the jurisdiction must print the ballots and signage in that language.

What can you do to ensure that voting is fair? Kennedy suggested that if you notice any violations you alert his office. They investigate complaints and take action when necessary.

The League's luncheon was well attended and the audience included several candidates and elected officials. Ben Boykin, candidate for County Legislator was there along with State Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins.

In other League news, the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale recently released a consensus statement on changes to the Village's telecommunications laws in response to applications to install DAS antennas in the Village. You can review the statement on their website here.

For more information about the LWVS, visit their website. (Photo credit Nan Berke)