U.S. Sues NYC Suburb, Say Elections Harm Hispanics
Calls to Mayor Gerald Logan and village attorney Anthony Cerreto were not immediately returned.
On Dec. 4, after seeing data provided by the Justice Department, the village trustees voted unanimously that the election system does not violate the Voting Rights Act. Logan called the government case "a waste of taxpayer dollars."
Port Chester, with a population just under 28,000, was 43 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 Census. The citizen voting-age population was 22 percent Hispanic. But no Hispanic has ever been elected to the Board of Trustees.
The village is about 25 miles from New York City, on the Connecticut border in Westchester County. A mayor and six trustees govern it. The mayor serves a two-year term, the trustees three-year terms, and those trustee terms are staggered so that two are elected each year to represent the entire village.
The next election is scheduled for March 2007, and the Justice Department is asking that a new system be in place by then.
Last April, the Justice Department advised Port Chester that its system violated the Voting Rights Act. The letter threatened a lawsuit but offered to delay filing it to reach a settlement, and suggested three plans to divide the village into districts.
In court papers, the government said the Hispanic population of Port Chester is geographically compact enough to constitute a majority in a single-member district.
It said Hispanic candidates have been defeated in the past by "white bloc voting."
The Justice Department wants Judge Stephen Robinson to declare that the at-large method violates the Voting Rights Act; block any election under the current system; and order a new plan.