A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge announced Tuesday that he believes Santa Clara’s at-large voting system violates the California Voting Rights Act and has impaired the Asian-American population from getting elected.
Santa Clara registered voters Ladonna Yumori Kaku, Michael Kaku, Wesley Kazuo Mukoyama, Umar Kumal and Herminio Hernando filed a complaint against the city in October after attorney Robert Rubin notified the jurisdiction four times that his clients believed the system caused vote dilution.
The basis of Rubin’s argument was rooted in the fact that not a single Asian-American had been elected in Santa Clara since 1951. He said the city had denied the community of its constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs proved by a “preponderance of the evidence” that the at-large method had failed the demographic as a result of dilution, Judge Thomas Kuhnle wrote in his formal proposed decision….