"Fair" Minority Representation and the California Voting Rights Act

Olivier Richomme (1)

1 TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique

The California Voting Rights Act is slowly eliminating at-large elections in the Golden State and it had a positive outcome for minorities' representation, especially Latinos. It helped ethnoracial minorities elect more candidates of their choice at the local level and created a pool of talent that could be tapped into for higher office. Yet, switching to districts has it limits, in particular when cities are well integrated. And by itself, it may not guarantee that minorities can reach descriptive representation close to their electoral weight. The CVRA does not limit remedies to district systems. Alternative voting systems, such as cumulative voting, as they have become more popular lately, can represent a supplement to single member plurality districts when majority-minority districts are not easily drawn. Besides, California is the only state that managed to pass such a law. When state legislation does not encourage the elimination of atlarge systems, alternative voting systems might be the next logical step in electoral reform attempts.

Mots clés: single-member districts; proportional voting; California Voting Rights Act; minority representation; racial polarization; at-large elections

Mots clés: California Voting Rights Act; minorités ethno-raciales; représentation

Domaines: Science politique; Science politique

Olivier Richomme. "Fair" Minority Representation and the California Voting Rights Act. National political science review, 2020, 20 (2), pp.55-75. ⟨hal-03878337⟩