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Judge orders Washington to draw new Latino district, citing Voting Rights Act [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-08-11
A federal district judge struck down one of Washington's 49 legislative districts on Thursday for violating the Voting Rights Act and ordered the state to redraw the 15th District to ensure that Latino voters there have the ability to elect their preferred candidates. The ruling follows a landmark Supreme Court decision in June that upheld the same provision of the VRA at issue here.
Latinos make up 68% of adults in the existing 15th District, which is located in the heavily agricultural Yakima Valley in south-central Washington, but only 51% of eligible voters. Plaintiffs successfully argued that the district as drawn includes areas with historically low Latino turnout and excludes nearby communities with higher turnout, resulting in an electorate that is predominantly white. And as in other heavily agricultural areas with large Latino migrant populations, such as California's Central Valley, Latino voter participation is particularly low in midterm years.
As a result, Joe Biden won the 15th by just two tenths of a percentage point in 2020, according to Dave's Redistricting App, suggesting that the district could struggle to elect Latino voters' candidates of choice—who would likely be Democrats—further down the ballot.
The problem would have been even more acute last year, when Democratic Sen. Patty Murray lost the 15th by a wide 64-36 margin despite winning statewide by a margin comparable to Biden's two years earlier. At the legislative level, Republican state Sen. Nikki Torres easily prevailed 68-32 in 2022, and the districts' two Republican members of the state House didn't even have Democratic opponents. (Washington uses the same map for both legislative chambers, with each district electing one senator and two representatives.)
The court granted the state an opportunity to redraw the map, which would require it to reconvene its bipartisan redistricting commission. The commission—whose members consist of two Democrats, two Republicans, and a nonvoting chair member who can’t break ties—would need to submit a new map by Jan. 8 for the legislature's approval, with a deadline for lawmakers to enact it by Feb. 7.
However, it would take two-thirds of legislators to call the commission back to work, meaning Democrats would need some Republican votes to do so. GOP support may be difficult to find, since a redrawn district could cost Republicans a seat in the Senate and two in the House. (Both chambers are currently run by Democrats.)
If lawmakers or the commission fail to act, the court itself would take over the map-making process and give the parties a chance to propose maps. However, it's unclear whether Republicans, who were allowed to intervene as co-defendants, will appeal the court's ruling.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/11/2186705/-Judge-orders-Washington-to-draw-new-Latino-district-citing-Voting-Rights-Act
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