At-Large Local Elections Make a Mockery of Democracy

As the ethnic mix shifts in communities across the nation, a right-wing old guard manages to maintain political power. An important tool is a political anachronism that the landed gentry used to assure that commoners would not control local government, even in a democracy. That anachronism is at-large voting, and it provides to many Americans only an illusion of democracy.

Cities and school districts are typically divided into areas or wards. Each area is given its own representative, called a councilperson, select person or trustee, who is supposed to represent the needs and wishes of the area. However, because many city and school district elections are at-large, voters from each area in the city or district can vote for representatives in all other areas, as well as their own. If your city or school board ballots read “vote for (any number) of the above,� then you are a victim of at-large elections.

At-large elections can, and often do, result in citizens in one area having their area’s representative actually elected by voters from another area. This is especially the case with areas largely populated with minorities. Because minorities often vote in low numbers, larger numbers of right-wing voters from outside their area can elect the minority area’s representative and install a person who represents right-wing interests.

A good example of this is the Orange Unified School District (OUSD), in which I teach. In recent elections, a right-wing Anglo voting bloc, which is largely concentrated in just two areas of the district, elected the representatives in most areas of the district, many of which have predominantly minority populations. One result was that the trustee supposedly representing Latino needs, but who was actually elected by the bloc outside the Latino area, voted against providing health care for Latino children, even though the much needed care would have cost the district nothing and was overwhelmingly wanted by the Latino community.

If U.S. congressional representatives were elected at-large, voters in New York could elect California’s representatives if voters in New York voted in higher numbers than Californians. At-large elections deprive all voters, regardless of ethnic background, of their exclusive right to elect their own representatives. Wherever at-large elections have been challenged by a properly framed cause of action, courts have overturned the practice as a violation of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. In Kelleher vs. Southeastern Regional (1986), the court defined each citizen’s right to an undiluted vote. In Buckanaga vs. Sisseton (1986), the court established the criteria for determining vote dilution. In LULAC vs. Midland (1987), the court provided that several minority groups could band together as one to claim vote dilution by at-large elections.

City councils and school board trustees can change from at-large elections at any time. Court action is not needed if the city council members or school board trustees are genuinely interested in democracy instead of preserving their own power. Unfortunately for citizens in the Orange Unified School District, the right-wing school board majority is more interested in retaining their control than in undoing an insult to democracy. More losing battles lie ahead for this board, which has already spent large sums of taxpayer money on unnecessary lawsuits.

The undemocratic power given them by at-large elections has enabled the OUSD board to ignore not only the needs of the Latino and other minority communities, but to ignore even the homeowner and business communities. The board majority relentlessly pursues a narrow-minded ideological agenda which keeps the school district in turmoil and constantly in the newspaper.

Since schools are an important reason why people buy--or don’t buy--a house in a given area, the turmoil caused by these ideologues has undermined property values and has made it difficult for businesses to recruit employees. The president of the Orange Chamber of Commerce has spoken out at school board meetings against actions of the board.

But to no avail. Tragic as this is for the voters and children of OUSD, at-large elections are a national problem of stealth politics which rob citizens everywhere of true democratic representation. Immediate action is needed to eliminate this practice wherever it exists in America, perhaps even in your town and your school district.

And you thought this was a democracy. Not completely. Not yet.