New York town defies U.S. on Hispanic voting rights

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070311/pl_nm/usa_votingrights_dc;_ylt=AtoslCRr8IwDhGw9c0zAwEpZ.3QA

New York town defies U.S. on Hispanic voting rights

By Daniel Trotta Sun Mar 11, 10:07 AM ET

PORT CHESTER, New York (Reuters) - A dispute over voting rights reminiscent of the U.S. civil rights era has broken out in this New York town, where the federal government has thrust itself into the debate and a judge suspended an election.


The U.S. Justice Department told the village of Port Chester to rewrite its election laws because they have denied Hispanics a seat in the local government, and the all-white board is fighting back.

At issue is whether Port Chester is violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a hallmark of the black struggle for equal rights, by insisting its board of trustees be elected by a villagewide vote.

Although they make up 46 percent of Port Chester's population, no Hispanic has been elected to the board governing the town of 28,000 people. The Justice Department sued Port Chester in December, after a complaint by Cesar Ruiz, a Hispanic who made an unsuccessful bid to be a trustee in 2001......

[madville]

1. what's their point

Are they mad because they don't have enough registered legal voters ? The article didn't make it clear and even stated that it was unknown what percentage of the Hispanic population there is legal/illegal. If there is fraud I could see a problem but is this guy just crying because he doesn't have enough registered voters behind him and wants to be appointed by a court.

[EFerrari]

2. Yeah! And those black people who fought for representation

they were probably here illegally, too. Remember that whiner, Martin Luther King Jr.? What was his point?

[rebel with a cause]

3. I think this might shed a little light on the matter.

The article goes on to say this about the issue, and it shed a little light about the true feelings of the upper class white folk who control the town. It seems the town is divided into two sections, the rich white people in one section with the poor working class mostly Latinos in the other. Now the way the districts are drawn up, gives the white rich section the upper hand in winning te elections. Yeah, I also feel like it is a big cop out saying that they don't know what percentage is legal and illegal. If they are illegal they will not be registered to vote, and that should not make a difference in this situation.


'The board of trustees of the New York City suburb last year refused to adopt the Justice Department's recommendation to divide the town into districts, which might give Hispanics a better chance to elect one of their own.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson then suspended the March 20 election for two trustee spots, pending a trial on the merits of the Justice Department's recommendation.

Robinson found the government was likely to win at trial, but the board still declined to settle.

"We've never had a problem with our elections or anything else. Now all of a sudden we have the federal government coming here, dictating to us they want us to have districts," said Port Chester Mayor Gerald Logan.

"There's such greater issues that the federal government could be working on, like what we are doing with our borders," he said, a reference the influx of immigrants -- many of them Spanish speakers from Latin America -- into the United States.'


The last statement is the most telling to me.

Edited to add quotation marks around the piece from the article.