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White House says Elon Musk isn't in charge at DOGE, but 'advising' the president; CA schools brace for harmful cuts to Medi-Cal; Report says AR students still struggle with COVID-19 learning loss; and UT enacts controversial labor union law.

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WA Supreme Court Voting Decision Could Reverberate in Other States

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Friday, June 23, 2023   

A recent decision from the Washington State Supreme Court on voting rights could echo in other states in the future.

Justices unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Washington Voting Rights Act in a case in which Latino residents have struggled to gain representation in local politics despite making up a large part of the population.

Yurij Rudensky, senior counsel in the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said other states have passed their own voting-rights protections, and called the Washington Supreme Court's decision to uphold the state law encouraging.

"States have an important role to play," Rudensky said, "in ensuring that all voters are treated fairly, that the rules that apply to elections, to representation don't deny people opportunities based on race."

The case involved a challenge to how Franklin County elects its commissioners, using at-large elections rather than districts. More than a third of the county's electorate is Latino but were never able to elect a commissioner. Opponents argued, in part, that the Washington voting law violated the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law.

Gabriel Portugal, Washington state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, was a plaintiff in the case. He said a new district-based system for electing commissioners will go into effect in 2024.

"For the first time, the county of Franklin will be able to elect a Latino or Latina commissioner," Portugal said. "That would be a historical event for all of us."

Rudensky said this is one of the first rulings on a state's voting-rights protections and could become a touchstone for others.

"As these sorts of policies become more common," Rudensky said, "both advocates who are in support of these laws and those that oppose them are looking for how courts examine the provisions and what they're saying about them."

California, New York, Oregon and Virginia have state-level voting acts, and Connecticut joined these states last week.


Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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