A group of Latino residents has sued the Kern County Board of Supervisors, claiming the board violated section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“It is clear that the Latino community has grown to the point it should have more than one supervisorial district,” said Thomas Saenz, the president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit challenges Kern County’s 2011 redistricting plan, which divided the largely Latino communities of Delano, Wasco, Shafter and McFarland into two separate districts.
“The fracturing of the Latino community in northern Kern County is precisely the kind of racial gerrymandering that the Voting Rights Act was intended to cure,” added Matthew Barragan, a staff attorney at MALDEF.