A jury trial set for August could decide if the city of Huntington Beach switches to district elections.
Currently, Huntington Beach elections use the at-large method, where residents cast ballots for all City Council members. If the city is forced to switch to the by-district method, residents will only vote for a councilmember who lives within their geographic area.
In May, the nonprofit Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Victor Valladares, a Huntington Beach resident, filed a lawsuit against the city alleging the at-large method has led to “vote dilution for Latino residents and has denied them effective political participation in elections.”
The city has argued that Latino candidates like Tito Ortiz and Gracey Van Der Mark were successfully elected to office and is refusing to switch to by-district elections.
A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What the lawsuit says
Kevin Shenkman, the attorney representing Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Valladares, said the two Latinos elected to the City Council in recent years were not preferred by Latino voters in the city.