Malibu May Dodge Splitting Into 5 Voting Districts, As SM Wins Major Court Victory
Written by 991KBU on July 1, 2020
In a decision with huge implications for Malibu … the California Court of Appeal says Santa Monica’s at-large election system does not intentionally discriminate against Latino voters.
And it appears this ruling will means that both Santa Monica and Malibu can continue to have at large voting for city council seats.
Malibu lawyer Kevin Shenkman and his associates have been going up and down the state … threatening city after city with lawsuits unless they adopt district voting.
The cities object … they call it a legal shakedown by a law firm that makes legal fees doing this.
But Shenkman has forced some cities with large minority populations to shift to voting by districts … giving minorities a decent shot at getting elected.
The Santa Monica Lookout newspaper has obtained the preliminary opinion from the Court of Appeal,
The three-judge panel finds that Shenkman “failed to show the at-large system was the reason Latinos have had trouble getting elected to the (Santa Monica) City Council.
“If one assumes groups vote only for candidates from their own group … as is (premise for this suit … then the reason for Latinos’ lack of electoral success in Santa Monica would appear to be that there are too few Latinos to muster a majority, no matter how the City might slice itself into districts or wards.
“At-large voting would not seem to be to blame,” the Court wrote. “Small numbers would.”
And the court ssaid it was ready to toss out a lower court’s decision to carve Santa Monica up into voting districts.
Carving out one partuclar part of Santa Monica with 30 percent Latino voters would make little difference in electing latinos to the city council.
The Santa Monica decision will … if formally published by the three judge panel .. serve as legal precdent in Malibu.
The court says that the reason for Latinos’ lack of electoral success in Santa Monica would appear to be that there are too few Latinos to muster a majority … no matter how the City might slice itself into districts or wards.
“At-large voting would not seem to be to blame,” the Court wrote. “Small numbers would.”
If the opinion is published – it would set a legal precedent for the Malibu districting effort by Shenkman’s law associate … Leon Grimes.
The number of Latino voters is even smaller in Malibu … and Latino voters are not clustered in any part of the city.
Malibu voters were supposed to get an advisory vote on district elections this fall.
But the COVID-19 catastrophe has upended that schedule.
So far … the only Malibu voter we can find in favor of district elections … is Shenkman.
