Thread: TX-Judge to decide voting rights lawsuit against Irving ISD

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Judge to decide voting rights lawsuit against Irving ISD

09:27 PM CST on Wednesday, December 16, 2009
By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

The future of Irving school board elections now rests in the hands of a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater, who heard the lawsuit against Irving ISD, must decide whether the school district's at-large elections system violates the Voting Rights Act and denies representation to Hispanics.

In a separate case against the city of Irving, Judge Jorge Solis ruled in July that the city's at-large system violated the act and ordered the creation of single-member districts.

In closing arguments Wednesday, attorneys for the school district and plaintiff Manuel Benavidez continued to wrangle over the proper use of census data, how many Hispanics living in the district are eligible to vote and whether the city's large population of immigrants who can't vote affects the case.

Wendy Wang, an attorney from Bickel & Brewer Storefront, representing Benavidez, argued that Latinos can't win in the current system, noting that the last four Latinos to run for the board have lost despite winning the support of Latino voters.

"Non-Hispanic voters in effect vetoed the Hispanic voters' preferences," she said.

She proposed creating three districts where the majority of potential voters are Latino. C. Robert Heath, the attorney for the school district, argued that the three proposed districts are packed with immigrants who can't vote.

"Hispanic citizens are spread throughout the district," he said. "What is concentrated is Hispanic noncitizens, and that's where the plaintiffs have gone to draw their districts."

Demographics expert David Ely said his projections based on 2000 census data and 2007 American Community survey results, also from the Census Bureau, show that the number of adult Hispanic U.S. citizens has increased enough to create the districts.

He said that growth is mostly due to younger Hispanics reaching voting age since the last census. Ely said it was impossible to avoid drawing districts where both U.S. citizen and immigrant Hispanics are present.

"They live together," he said. "They're mixed together."

Heath criticized the use of survey data because it has a margin of error and samples only a small part of the population.

He also noted that the community has managed to elect one Hispanic trustee in its history: Ruben Franco, who ran against Benavidez.

"If this is a community hesitant to vote for a Hispanic ... it would have been very easy for an Anglo to put his or her hat into the ring and run against Mr. Franco," he said.


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 66a4e.html

So basicly the hispanics think the illegals should have representation in voting ...