Laserfiche WebLink
AugL 8. B. - Page 10 <br />Page z 014 <br />U.S. 755, 769 (1973). "[T]he majority, by virtue of its numerical superiority, will <br />regularly defeat the choices of minority voters." Gingles, at 47. When racially polarized <br />voting occurs, dividing the political unit into single -member districts, or some other <br />appropriate remedy, may facilitate a minority group's ability to elect its preferred <br />representatives. Rogers, at 616. <br />Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act ("FVRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1973, which Congress <br />enacted in 1965 and amended in 1982, targets, among other things, at -large election <br />schemes. Gingles at 37; see also Boyd & Markman, The 1982 Amendments to the Voting <br />Rights Act: A Legislative History (19 83) 40 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1347, 1402. Although <br />enforcement of the FVRA was successful in many states, California was an exception. By <br />enacting the CVRA, "[t]he Legislature intended to expand protections against vote <br />dilution over those provided by the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965." dauregui V. City <br />of Palmdale (2014) 226 Cal. App. *, 781, 808. Thus, while the CVRA is similar to the <br />FVRA in several respects, it is also different in several key respects, as the Legislature <br />sought to remedy what it considered "restrictive interpretations given to the federal act." <br />Assem. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 976 (2001-2002 Reg. Sess.) as <br />amended Apr. 9, 2002, p. 2. <br />The California Legislature dispensed with the requirement in Gingles that a minority <br />group demonstrate that it is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a <br />"majority -minority district." Sanchez, at 669. Rather, the CVRA requires only that a <br />plaintiff show the existence of racially polarized voting to establish that an at -large <br />method of election violates the CVRA, not the desirability of any particular remedy. See <br />Cal. Elec. Code § 14028 ("A violation of Section 14027 is established if it is shown that <br />racially polarized voting occurs ...") (emphasis added); also see Assem. Com. on <br />Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 976 (2001-2002 Reg. Sess.) as amended Apr. 9, <br />2002, p. 3 ("Thus, this bill puts the voting rights horse (the discrimination issue) back <br />where it sensibly belongs in front of the cart (what type of remedy is appropriate once <br />racially polarized voting has been shown).") <br />To establish a violation of the CVRA, a plaintiff must generally show that "racially <br />polarized voting occurs in elections for members of the governing body of the political <br />subdivision or in elections incorporating other electoral choices by the voters of the <br />political subdivision." Elec. Code § 14028(a). The CVRA specifies the elections that are <br />most probative: "elections in which at least one candidate is a member of a protected <br />class or elections involving ballot measures, or other electoral choices that affect the <br />rights and privileges of members of a protected class." Elec. Code § 14028(a). The <br />CVRA also makes clear that "[e]lections conducted prior to the filing of an action ... are <br />more probative to establish the existence of racially polarized voting than elections <br />conducted after the filing of the action." Id. <br />