Huntington Beach’s city attorney says he’ll defend in court how councilmembers are elected amid challenges arguing the system disenfranchises minority voters.
For decades, most cities, school districts and other elected boards used an at-large system where voters cast ballots choosing winners for whichever seats are open that election year.
But over the last 10 years or so, municipalities up and down the state have responded to similar complaints they were violating California’s Voters Rights Act by changing to by-district elections. They carved the city up into geographic areas and voters now choose a representative from their own district.
In 2017, Huntington Beach leaders refused to change to by-district elections when faced with a demand letter from the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which has successfully challenged several Orange County cities over their voting system.
The group circled back with a new letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman in January saying, “voting within the city is racially polarized, resulting in minority vote dilution” and giving a March 19 deadline to respond.
City Attorney Michael Gates released his response letter on Thursday, March 7, saying, “We are ready, willing and able to fight any lawsuit you contemplate.”
“The city’s at-large elections are not racially polarizing, and Latino candidates are very successful in Huntington Beach,” a city statement said, pointing to current mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, who is Latino and had success at the ballot box. Gates also references Tito Ortiz’s win in 2020.
“A by-district system would demonstrably cripple the impact an individual voter has on citywide policy and input,” the city’s statement said. “This change would reduce a voter’s ability to vote for all seven councilmembers in elections every two years, to voting for one councilmember in elections every four years.”
City officials said the council is “set to defend the city’s…
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