State Republicans Claim There's No Such Thing as Voter Disenfranchisement
Down in the Washington State Legislature, lawmakers are, for the sixth year in a row, fighting over whether to pass the Washington State Voting Rights Act.
If passed, a state-level voting rights law could give people of color the ability to challenge the voting systems in their cities if those systems don’t provide fair representation. In at least two cities in Washington—Yakima and Pasco—the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has argued that at-large voting systems dilute the Latino vote and prevent Latinos from having meaningful participation in local elections. (After the ACLU won a case in Yakima, a record number of Latinos ran for the city council there and won seats on the council for the first time.)
The point of a state Voting Rights Act would be to give Washington residents a local path to challenge those types of voting systems, instead of having to rely on lengthy and expensive federal cases under the federal Voting Rights Act. But some Republicans doubt there's much of a problem to be fixed at all.
This year, like in years past, Democrats in Olympia introduced a Washington State Voting Rights Act. But a Republican, Mark “Seattle needs adult supervision” Miloscia, introduced his own watered down proposal, too.
While both bills would allow cities to change their at-large voting systems to districted elections, Miloscia’s is significantly weaker. The Democratic proposal sets up a process for voters to complain if their city's system is unfair and then, if the city doesn't address the problem, to sue. Miloscia's bill creates no such complaint process and doesn't allow disenfranchised voters to sue their city in state court if the voting system is not fixed, leaving them with the same expensive federal process that currently exists. In short, it's a bill to allow local redistricting, but not a real voting rights bill.
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/03/03/24983344/during-debate-over-voting-rights-state-republicans-claim-theres-no-such-thing-as-voter-disenfranchisement
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