State lawmaker says King City’s election method violates voting laws

A state lawmaker and local civil rights activists say King City is violating the state and federal law. Specifically, both the federal and state voting rights acts.

They say the City Council is not representative of the population there.

As it stands, King City elects its City Council by an at-large system, meaning everyone votes for all of the candidates. Along with State Assemblymember Luis Alejo, The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Tri-County Association of Latino Elected Officials said, at a joint press conference Friday, they want to set up a district system like in Salinas, for example.

A district system is where one councilmember represents a specific area of the city and is voted on by people who live in that district.

“According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 90.3 percent of the King City residents are minorities and yet only one of five council members is a minority,” Alejo said. “We think the current at-large election system is in violation of both state and federal law.”

The California and Federal Voting Rights Acts say an election system should allow voters to choose who they want to represent them, and Alejo says the at-large system prevents that.

“I agree I think we need to have more Latino elected officials on City Council,” said Robert Cullen, mayor of King City.

However, Cullen questions the idea of changing to district-voting.

“To divide a city of 12,000 [residents] into five areas, I mean we don’t really have five distinct areas even if we created that.”

Alejo, LULAC and TCALEO sent a letter to King City demanding the City Council put this issue up for a vote to put it on the ballot for 2016. The letter has a deadline of 45 days.

If the district-voting is turned down or the council refuses to take up the issue, Alejo said voters can write a petition to put it on the ballot.

Lastly, if both those options fail, Alejo said he is prepared to take the city to court.