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It has been an unusually good month for voting rights. First, the US Supreme Court passed up an opportunity to kill off the federal Voting Rights Act and ordered Alabama’s Legislature to redraw a discriminatory congressional map. Then, on Thursday, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the state’s own Voting Rights Act.
At the heart of the state dispute was a 2021 lawsuit. Citing the rights of minority groups under the Washington Voting Rights Act (WVRA), Latino voters sued Franklin County, WA. They claimed that the county’s at-large electoral system in general elections for the three-member Franklin County Commission diluted the voting power of Latino voters.
Essentially, while the primaries were district-based, the entire county then voted for the three commissioners. As a result, the county consistently elected white candidates and opposed those favored by Latino voters, who make up about one-third of Franklin County’s electorate.
Following a settlement, the rules were changed and, beginning in 2024, will allow the county’s Latino population to elect a commissioner of its choice.
Photo credit: Allen4names / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
However, a local Republican official challenged that agreement, and asked the state Supreme Court to throw it out on the grounds that the WVRA is unconstitutional because it “makes race the predominant factor in districting, and grants elections and voting privileges to certain groups over others.”
On Thursday, the court unanimously rejected that argument and upheld the WVRA.
“In sum, the WVRA means exactly what it says,” the decision stated. “All Washington voters are protected from discrimination on the basis of race, color, or language minority group.”
Voting rights advocates hailed the ruling as an important victory for voters.
“Today’s ruling is a big win for voting rights in Washington State and beyond,” said Yurij Rudensky, senior counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. “At a moment when those rights are under sustained assault nationwide, the court has affirmed that state law and state courts can protect against discrimination in elections.”
He added that, now more than ever, it is up to the states to protect voting rights in light of a string of US Supreme Court decisions that have gutted the federal Voting Rights Act.
“Had the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s law in this case, it would have left voters without a powerful safeguard against discrimination in local elections,” Rudensky said. “This ruling sends a clear message: states have a crucial role in protecting voters from discrimination, and they are well within their constitutional rights to do so.”
