Latino Activists Seize on Texas Ruling to Boost Voting Power

By STEPHANIE SIMON

Latino activists are seeking to gain political clout by forcing electoral changes in communities nationwide, using a recent federal court decision in Irving, Texas, as a template.

The city of 200,000, a Dallas suburb, was ordered to reorganize its municipal election system to give Hispanics more voting power. Irving had been choosing its council members through citywide "at large" elections, but U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis ruled that the system diluted the influence of Irving's fast-growing minority population, which is concentrated in the southern half of the city.

He didn't impose a specific remedy but said any new system -- perhaps electing council members by district -- must allow "Hispanics to elect candidates of their own choosing."

The ruling offers a road map for activists who expect the 2010 census to show big growth in the Latino population, especially in Southern states such as Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. With the data in hand, they plan to press politicians to give Latino residents more influence when they redraw congressional and state legislative districts, and to force cities and towns to retool municipal elections -- or face lawsuits like the one in Irving.

Growth in the U.S. Hispanic Population

See annual changes from 2000-2008.

The coming census will allow Latinos to make their case to city and state power brokers "in a way they cannot ignore," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

The Irving case was brought by Manuel Benavidez, a Hispanic resident who argued that the city violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by holding citywide elections instead of dividing the city into districts. Latinos make up nearly 42% of Irving's population, but only one Latino has won a city-council seat in the last 20 years (and, according to the court record, he didn't have a Spanish surname and didn't acknowledge his Hispanic heritage until after the election).

Irving, like other suburbs of Dallas, has churned with ethnic tension in recent years. City police have turned over more than 1,600 illegal immigrants suspected of various crimes to federal authorities for deportation, to the outrage of some in the Hispanic community. Last year, the Justice Department sent federal observers to monitor city elections to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

The city is negotiating with the Latino community to devise a new electoral system but also plans to appeal the ruling, Mayor Herbert Gears said. "We don't believe our system is illegal and we want to correct the record on that," he said.

Looking Back at the Latino Vote

• Latins in U.S. Seek Voting-Law Benefits, Claim Discrimination (July 11, 1975)
• Small City in Texas Is a Testing Ground Of Chicano Movement (Sept. 5, 1975)
• Plan to Simplify Voter Registration Is Slated by Carter (March 21, 1977)

Nationwide, Latinos and other minorities have been challenging at-large voting systems in court for three decades and have won scores of victories, including a landmark case in Dallas in 1990.

Afterward, Dallas was divided into 14 council districts, which has greatly increased minority representation -- but has also fueled discontent, with critics saying the council members run their districts like fiefdoms, with little concern for the greater good.

Mr. Gears says he supports diversity on the Irving city council but fears adopting a Dallas-style system will jeopardize the city's stability -- built on a strong business community and low tax rate -- by "creating parochialism and opportunities for corruption and shenanigans."

Latino advocates respond that they deserve a voice in policy making and will insist on districts and election rules that make that possible.

"To take a slogan from the American revolutionaries, taxation without representation is tyranny," said Hector M. Flores, past president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Latino advocacy group.

The Hispanic population in the U.S. is now estimated at 47 million and could top 50 million in the census, which aims to count everyone living in the country, including illegal immigrants.

Census directors are making an all-out effort to reach Hispanics and other groups considered hard to count because of language and cultural barriers. For the first time, the census will send a bilingual questionnaire to 13 million Spanish-speaking homes. Telemundo is even integrating census-related plot twists into its Spanish-language soap operas.

But there is some division in the Hispanic community. The Rev. Miguel Rivera, director of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, has been urging undocumented residents to boycott the census. The boycott, he says, is designed to pressure Congress into enacting reform that will put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

Census population figures govern distribution of more than $400 billion in federal funding for scores of programs.

The census also spurs political redistricting at the federal, state and local levels. This happens automatically every 10 years as the new data come out. This year, however, Latinos hope to make race and ethnicity a crucial part of the conversation, with the Irving court decision as Exhibit A.

Bill Brewer, the attorney who took Irving's political system to court, said his "phone has been ringing off the hook" since the July 15 ruling with calls from activists in other cities seeking advice on bringing similar cases.

"After the census we can expect tons of legal challenges, because in many ways it's a spoils system," said Ellen Katz, a law professor at the University of Michigan who studies voting rights. "Everyone is grabbing."

Write to Stephanie Simon at stephanie.simon@wsj.com