Asian Americans at center of court battle of district elections vs. at-large elections

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Santa Clara City Council member Raj Chahal, right, was elected after district elections was imposed on Santa Clara.

Voting rights law being challenged after Asian American voted onto Santa Clara city council. 

The addition of Raj Chahal to the city council was made possible by the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), that formed the basis of a lawsuit filed by  the Hindu American Foundation; the San Jose, Sequoia, and Silicon Valley chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League; the Vietnamese American Roundtable; and the Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation.

After the Santa Clara Superior Court ruled in favor of the lawsuit, the city was forced to move to move from at-large elections to district elections, thus allowing districts with large number of minority voters to wield their power by voting in someone who shares their cultural heritage to represent them.

Just as the city was making history with Chahal's Nov. 2018 election, the council majority -- still white -- decided to appeal the Superior Court decision.

“The city is appealing because the trial court decision was a mistake,” said city attorney Brian Doyle, adding that people in Santa Clara do not engage in racially polarized voting patterns.

“The CVRA worked exactly as it should in Santa Clara,” said Jonathan Stein of the Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, “replacing an election system that had systematically and inarguably blocked the City’s Asian American community from achieving representation on City Council and replacing it with a district election system that immediately ended that ignominious history of exclusion.”

The legal advocacy nonprofit filed a friend of the court brief in August supporting the original lawsuit filed by the minority organizations.

The amicus brief filed by Advancing Justice -- Asian Law Caucus, discusses the history of Asian American exclusion and discrimination in this nation and in California, the impact that history has on Asian American civic participation today, and the specific ways in which courts should interpret the CVRA to enable Asian American communities to vindicate their voting rights.

The ruling from Superior Court Judge Kuhnle follows a trend seen in other California cities such as Palmdale, Poway and Santa Monica, which also were sued for allegedly violating the voting rights law.

The amicus brief can be found online here. It states in part:

"Asian Americans’ political opportunities in this state are still shaped by the exclusion experienced by generations of Californians through immigration prohibitions, denials of fundamental rights and privileges, and political districts that diminish the impact of our community’s voice. In light of the federal government’s continued assaults on voting rights across the country, the CVRA’s protections are crucial to ensure that Asian Americans and all other groups have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice and to meaningfully participate in California’s political processes."

Santa Clara is 37 percent Asian, 36 percent white and 17 percent Hispanic, based on the 2010 census.

The statistical evidence presented at the trial a year ago shows racially polarized voting (RPV) — where minorities cannot elect candidates that aren’t favored by the city-wide majority — in five of 10 elections. The city doesn’t dispute this.

Plaintiffs are hoping the appellate court will uphold the Superior Court decision based on these facts:

• No minority has ever been elected to the Santa Clara City Council prior to district elections.
• Only white candidates preferred by most white voters won elections.
• The City retained its at-large by-seat system after being told repeatedly that it resulted in vote dilution.
• In 2016 the City Council appointed a white applicant to Council vacancy over two qualified Asian-American applicants.
• Precinct analysis of the 2016 election shows that even though almost 60 percent of Asian American voters cast their ballot for Chahal in his first attempt to get elected, Chahal still finished third in that election for two seats.

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