A group of Latino residents has sued the Kern County, California Board of Supervisors, claiming the Board violated Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“It is clear that the Latino community has grown to the point it should have more than one supervisorial district,” said Thomas Saenz, the President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit challenges Kern County’s 2011 Redistricting plan, which divided the largely Latino communities of Delano, Wasco, Shafter and McFarland into two separate Districts.
“The fracturing of the Latino community in northern Kern County is precisely the kind of racial gerrymandering that the Voting Rights Act was intended to cure,” added Matthew Barragan, a Staff Attorney at MALDEF.
Currently, only one of the five Supervisors, Leticia Perez, is non-white. Camila Chavez, Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, said that needs to change.
"Latinos are 51 percent of the population in Kern County, however, we are not being reflected, our voices are not equally heard, on the Kern County Board of Supervisors," she said.
The lawsuit seeks to change the District boundaries to create a Latino-majority District in northern Kern County.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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