[EL] Voting Rights Act Challenges to Election Timing

[David A. Holtzman]

But can state or federal law rule out off-cycle elections?
That would block the shortest path to more accountability of electeds to 
voters: More Frequent Elections (MFEs).
   - d

On 5/16/2016 4:59 PM, Rob Richie wrote:
> I've seen several California VRA settlements where moving the election
>   date was a part of the settlement. Outside of California, the ACLU of
> Maryland publicly explored a lawsuit against Greenbelt (MD), and
> accepted its decision to move the election to a a time of year with
> higher, more representative turnout that, combined with an increase in
> size of the council, did contribute to election of a more diverse
> council.
>
> Note that one of the interesting apparent impacts of going to ranked
> choice voting in the four Bay Area cities with is a significant uptick
> in election of people of color and women. - -white men now hold about
> one in ten of the 52 seats elected by RCV there. Although the system
> is still winner-take-all as applied in single winner elections, it
> means all candidate are at the table when the largest, most
> representative turnout participates. We're in the midst of a less
> anecdotal analysis  of the possible correlation, and should  have that
> study done this summer.
>
> Rob Richie, FairVote
> Website: www.fairvote.org
> Landline: (301) 270-4616
>
>> On May 16, 2016, at 12:23 PM, Aaron Lawrence <aaron.lawrence at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Listmates,
>>
>> I'm looking at the issue of extremely low turnout local elections scheduled during "off years." Is anyone aware of any (successful or otherwise) challenges under Voting Rights Act to this sort of scheduling of an election by a local government? (i.e. where it was contended that scheduling the election during an "off year" where turnout is predictably very low results in the abridgment of voting rights?)
>>
>> (California recently addressed this issue to an extent through SB 415, which goes into effect over the next several years and generally moves towards consolidating local elections with higher turnout statewide elections, but I was curious of the extent to which this issue has been addressed in the courts.)
>>
>> Aaron Lawrence, Esq.
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-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

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