Irony in Madera

In the long struggle to ensure voting rights for minority groups, a recurring battle has been the one to replace at-large voting systems with district-based systems. At-large systems -- in which each candidate for, say, city council or the local school board is elected by all the voters, rather than by voters in smaller districts -- have long been known to dilute the votes of minorities.

Beginning decades ago in the Deep South and moving on to other communities where voting is racially polarized, the Justice Department and civil rights groups have asked courts to dismantle these systems and to draw smaller districts that allow geographically concentrated ethnic and racial groups a voice in local elections. Lo and behold, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and others have been elected to city councils and school boards and water districts that never had nonwhite representation before.

In California, this is still a significant issue. About 92% of the state's school boards use at-large voting, as do many city councils and other local boards. The California Voting Rights Act, signed into law just seven years ago, does not allow such systems if there is evidence that they "impair the ability" of a minority group to influence the outcome of an election. We support efforts to ensure a voice for minority groups that traditionally have been underrepresented.

But it is not always so straightforward. Consider the case of the Madera Unified School District. Madera's student body is more than 80% Latino. Yet there is only one Latino on the school board. Some of this disparity can be explained by the fact that many of the community's voting-age Latinos are not citizens. But even after subtracting them, there are still an awful lot of eligible Latino voters in Madera.

In August, the San Francisco-based Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights sued the school district on behalf of three students, arguing that its voting system violated the California Voting Rights Act. A judge agreed, nullifying the upcoming election, and the district subsequently promised to dismantle the at-large system.

Here's the complication: Eligible Latino voters are no longer a minority in Madera. According to documents submitted to the court, they now hold a small majority.