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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES SANTA PAULA, CALIFORNIA

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A city in Ventura County, California was sued today because its method of electing its governing body does not provide an equal opportunity for Hispanic citizens to participate in the electoral process, the Justice Department announced.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that the at-large method used to elect the City Council of Santa Paula, California, violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it dilutes the voting strength of the city's Hispanic citizens. Today's lawsuit is the result of an extensive investigation conducted by the Civil Rights Division into the city's electoral practices and history.

"The Voting Rights Act guarantees that minority citizens have the opportunity for meaningful participation in the democratic process," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "We feel today's lawsuit will help bring down the barriers preventing Santa Paula's Hispanic citizens from having an equal opportunity to elect representatives to their city government."

"This suit has been filed to help ensure that the equality of all our citizens is realized in the voting process," said United States Attorney Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

The Santa Paula City Council consists of five members who are elected at large to four-year staggered terms. According to the 1990 Census, Hispanic persons constitute 54% of the city's voting age population, and about 41% of the voters in the most recent city council election in 1998 had Spanish surnames. In July 1999, the Justice Department completed an extensive investigation and notified Santa Paula in writing that the Department had concluded that the method of electing the city council violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Following its investigation, the Justice Department invited the city to engage in settlement discussions. Since then there have been discussions between the parties and an examination of additional information about Santa Paula by the Department. But efforts to reach a settlement have been unsuccessful.

The Justice Department's complaint alleges that racially polarized voting, in combination with the use of an at-large election system, results in a dilution of the voting strength of the Hispanic community in Santa Paula in violation of Section 2. The Justice Department's review of past city council elections found that Hispanic voters in Santa Paula are politically cohesive, but that white voters usually vote as a bloc to defeat Hispanic voters' candidates of choice. The complaint states that only one member of the Santa Paula city council was a candidate of choice of Hispanic voters.

Today's lawsuit seeks a change in the method of electing the Santa Paula City Council to provide Hispanic voters an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.

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