Settlement Reached with Hispanic Voters in Rural California Town

HANFORD, California (AP) March 23, 2005 - Hispanic voters in this rural San Joaquin Valley town have won a landmark settlement in the first case to be resolved under the California Voting Rights Act, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.

Latinos here sued the Hanford Joint Union High School District last year, alleging the way elections are structured keeps Hispanic candidates from winning.

Like the majority of school districts across California, voters in Hanford elect school board members from the community at large, rather than from districts within the city. The suit, asserted the at-large system serves to dilute the Hispanic voting bloc — thus denying Hispanics the chance to set district policies.

No Hispanic has served on the high school district's five-member board dating back more than two decades, according to the lawsuit, though the Hispanic population has grown steadily and stands at around 39 percent of Hanford's 42,000 residents.

As a result of the settlement, the school board has agreed to implement district-based elections.

It is the first such settlement under the law that went into effect in 2002, said Robert Rubin, Legal Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and lead plaintiffs' attorney.