Thread: TX: Some Farmers Branch Voters Continue Whining

Lawsuit seeks to ban at-large council elections in FB 3:07 PM CDT

03:07 PM CDT on Monday, May 21, 2007
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News
ssandoval@dallasnews.com

Three Hispanic residents of Farmers Branch have filed a lawsuit to stop at-large City Council elections and force the city to move to representation based on districts.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas on Monday, says the current at-large method of electing council members unlawfully dilutes the voting strength of Latino voters and denies them the right to vote on account of their race, color or ethnicity.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the city from holding any future elections under the at-large system.

Domingo Garcia, a Dallas activist who brought together the plaintiffs and San Antonio attorney Rolando Rios, said that if the single-member districts being proposed by the plaintiffs had been in place in the May 12 election, a Hispanic candidate would have been elected.

Jose Galvez, the first Hispanic to run for City Council, finished last in a three-man race for Place 1.

"'One' is a very significant development. There's a perception, 'Why run at-large if you can't get elected,'" Mr. Rios said.

Opponents say the city of 28,000 is too small for single-member districts.

In other expected court action Monday, there was no word yet from U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay, who was expected to decide whether a voter-endorsed ordinance banning apartment rentals to most illegal immigrants should be blocked with a temporary restraining order. The ordinance, which also was approved overwhelmingly by voters on May 12, is scheduled to take effect Tuesday.

Domingo Garcia, a Dallas activist who brought together the plaintiffs

This guy is in Dallas an has nothing to do with the city of Farmers Branch. So now he's going to tell the citizens of Farmers Branch that they don't have the right for self governance?

Heck, the illegals keep telling our legislators how to do their business...I guess this just goes along with the rest of the "anarchy", as Sen. Specter would say.

The will of the people will be denied by some judge. Not right; unconstitutional; and who are these folks to complain. It was voted on fairly, sorry if you did not get your candidate up on the City Council, that's' voted on too. Maybe he would have lost maybe not but he did not run. Awww.....does that mean all elections are now do overs because of a hypothetical.
Sorry to say but if this Judge overrides the will of the people in Farmer's Branch its called legislating from the bench. This is not what a judge should be doing and is why this country is going down the crapper. Activist judges etc.
On this note can the people then run to a court and try to kick out any candidate they don't like after he wins an election because maybe if some other person ran he would not have won. How Bizarre can you get. Yeah I know its an extreme example but that is the point.