A Mountlake Terrace legislator says that the Washington Voting Rights Act, which he sponsored, would make complaints of denial of rights simpler and less expensive for both sides.
Democratic State Rep. Luis Moscoso, who represents the 1st Legislative District, including most of Mountlake Terrace, all of Brier and Bothell, unincorporated areas of Snohomish County north and east of Bothell, north Kirkland, and unincorporated areas of King County between Bothell and Kirkland, is the prime sponsor of House bill 1745, the Washington Voting Rights Act. A legislator from Kirkland has introduced a companion bill in the State Senate.
Moscoso said Thursday that the bill would provide a more simple and elegant solution to the kind of problem that resulted in a lawsuit in Yakima, a lawsuit that has taken more than two years and cost each side more than $1 million.
A federal judge last week ordered the City of Yakima to either agree to a plan put forward by representatives of Hispanic residents of Yakima or to come up with a plan of its own.
The Yakima City Council has yet to decide whether it will appeal the decision, present an alternative plan or comply with the plan offered by representatives of the complaining parties. The plan from the complainants would replace Yakima’s at-large voting system with seven districts, one of which has a Hispanic majority and one of which has a near-Hispanic majority.
The order by a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington followed an August decision by the same judge. In August, the judge found that the City of Yakima’s at-large electoral plan discriminated against the voting rights of the city’s large Hispanic population.
The judge last week ordered the city to pay the $1 million court costs of the complaining parties. The city also has spent $1 million defending its side of the case.
Moscoso said that, under the Washington Voting Rights Act, the matter may never have gone to court.
He said that the proposed state law offers several options for addressing the concerns without litigation that do not exist in federal law.
“When citizens raise concerns to the local jurisdiction, the parties are required to meet and seek a mutually agreed-upon solution that does not involve litigation,” he said of the proposal. “A local jurisdiction would also have the opportunity to review their electoral procedures and make corrections before a lawsuit proceeds – an option not afforded to them under the federal law.
“If the parties could not reach an agreement, the case would then be handled in state – rather than federal – court. Such a move would cost less, expedite the decision, and remove the need for intrusive federal intervention. Those are outcomes that benefit everyone.”
The House and Senate versions of the proposal have cleared their respective committees on government operations and gone to the rules committees.
Moscoso is vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee and a member of the Public Safety Committee and the committee on commerce and gaming.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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