Dan Walters: Big voting change in California communities is a big risk

A decade-old California law and 2010 census data are having a potentially explosive effect on how governing boards of local governments, especially cities, are elected.

While all counties and larger cities and school districts have long elected their governing boards from single-member districts, smaller jurisdictions have usually used "at-large" elections in which members are elected by all voters.

It's long been a bone of civic and political contention, with members of non-white ethnic groups complaining that at-large elections deny them opportunities to place members of their communities in positions of civic power.

Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters Follow him on Twitter @WaltersBee.

Throughout the state, the issue has often been joined via local ballot measures to switch to district voting, with some successful and some not.

Ten years ago, the Legislature weighed in. Its majority Democrats passed and then-Gov. Gray Davis signed the California Voting Rights Act, aimed at providing pathways to challenge at-large voting in the courts and thus give minority rights groups a legal weapon to compel change by showing a pattern of "racially polarized voting."

California Watch, a nonprofit journalistic organization, published an extensive article recently about how rights groups are using 2010 census data to wage their battles for district voting, noting that 14 cities with nonwhite population majorities have all-white councils.

It's becoming a very contentious issue in the affected cities. California Watch reports that in Compton, a California Voting Rights Act case may hinge on whether one sitting councilwoman, Janna Zurita, is deemed to be Latina or black.

On one level, it's understandable that civil rights activists seek more political clout through district voting. But, like all political policies, it has unintended ? and risky ? consequences.

One is illustrated by the Zurita case. In a state of ever-increasing ethnic diversity and complexity, do we really want to place voters and political figures in narrow racial pigeonholes?

Where, for instance, would Tiger Woods fit were he ever to seek political office here?

The notion ? which also permeates the latest legislative redistricting ? contains a faint whiff of racial categorization, ? la South Africa or the American South in the bad old days of apartheid and segregation. It assumes that someone of one race cannot represent those of another and adds to the self-segregation already afflicting California.

Another is the effect of having city council members who represent just one slice of the community ? geographic, cultural, ideological or all ? and may lack genuine interest in the city's overall welfare.

The petty, back-stabbing, what's-in-it-for-me-and-mine politics in cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles attest to the very real downside of district voting.

Source: http://www.modbee.com/2012/03/22/2124134/dan-walters-big-voting-change.html

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