MALDEF Files Section 2 Suit Challenging Stanislaus County, California, redistricting plans

The complaint is here. The press release is here:

MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) filed a challenge to the county’s 2021 Board of Supervisors and Board of Education redistricting plans on behalf of four voters who live in the county. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. In the complaint, attorneys argue that the adopted maps were drawn in such a way as to deny Latino voters an opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. Attorneys say the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The lawsuit asserts that the County’s Board of Supervisors failed to draw a second Latino-majority voting district despite an increase in the percentage of Latinos in the county’s voter population. Supervisors adopted maps that lowered the Latino Citizen Voting Age Population (LCVAP) by 1 percent in the county’s only majority Latino district. The complaint alleges that despite the dramatic growth of the Latino population, the supervisors broke a large, geographically compact, Latino community into three districts rather than create a second Latino district.

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