Compton city council members8/10/2023 One expert who analyzed Compton's voting patterns said the evidence of racial balloting was "clear and convincing." To take just one example: In 1994, when Californians voted on Proposition 187, exit polling found that 64% of Compton's non-Latino voters supported it less than 1% of its Latino voters did so. The conflicts are neither new nor deniable. And then, having cracked the city's closed politics, a group of experienced officeholders who could vie for mayor and other citywide offices would develop.Ĭompton's commitment to at-large voting, which has been challenged in a lawsuit alleging violations of the California Voting Act, is the manifestation of a particularly noxious brand of racial politics that plays out in schools, elections and even civic events. If instead, as happens in Los Angeles, council members represented specific geographic areas and were voted on only by residents of those areas, heavily Latino neighborhoods would have a better chance of electing Latino council members. In Compton, City Council members run in citywide elections, which means all voters can vote in all races. Instead, thanks in part to the kind of voting rules that were challenged and abandoned in many cities long ago, an all-black City Council and a black mayor maintain a firm hold on public office. Now consider Compton, a city that's about two-thirds Latino but in which no Latino has ever held elected office. The civil rights community would be apoplectic and the public justifiably enraged. And then imagine if that anomaly was protected by city election rules that virtually guaranteed no Latino candidate could land a spot in elected office. Imagine if today's Los Angeles were governed by a white mayor and an all-white City Council.
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