State Rep. Luis Moscoso says he is optimistic about the chances for passing the Washington Voting Rights Act during this year’s legislative session.
The bill passed Thursday in the State House of Representatives just as it had last year. Moscoso, prime sponsor of the legislation, said Friday that, this year, the bill has a better chance to pass the state Senate, where it never advanced to the floor last year from the Rules Committee.
Moscoso said that the bill, modeled after the civil-rights-era federal law, would provide an easier and swifter path to justice for individuals who have been shut out of their local elections.
Moscoso and other Democrats say that the bill would help avoid expensive federal litigation.
Moscoso said Thursday, “Today the House voted to protect fairness and equality in our democracy.”
The bill, HB 1745, would allow groups who find that they are systemically disenfranchised in local elections to challenge the process in state court. Moscoso said that this is quicker and less expensive than the federal option and that it would require parties who disagree over an election system to negotiate before suing and would protect municipalities that make meaningful change from future lawsuits.
Moscoso, and other Democrats say that the result would be an easier way to fix voting systems that hurt some voters. That includes cities that vote at-large instead of by districts. Democrats say that a bonus would be lower costs for local governments and taxpayers.
Democrats point to the high cost of a federal lawsuit against the city of Yakima in 2014 that resulted in an order to change city council elections from at-large representation to representation by districts.
Moscoso, one of three Hispanic members of the legislature, said Friday that he likes the bill’s prospects in the Senate.
He gave two reasons why some of the Republican state senators who opposed the bill last year may have a different view this year:
He said that what’s different is that legislators now know that: (A) without a state Voting Rights Act, potential plaintiffs will have no recourse but the federal courts; and (B) responding to federal suits wastes taxpayer resources (millions in the Yakima case), adding that the Washington Voting Rights Act, offers a mediated settlement or less expensive state court adjudication if needed.
Moscoso also said, “I have met with elected officials from Eastern Washington who told me they would like to avoid the expense of a federal lawsuit that they believe would be likely if they are authorized to modify their election systems as provided under 1745.
“The election of three Latinas in Yakima last year demonstrates the necessity of providing legislation that enables jurisdictions the ability to modify their election systems to avoid racially polarized voting that they reasonably expect to be possible in some areas. No Latinos had ever been elected in Yakima until the federal lawsuit proved that their election system was skewed against that minority community.”
The vote for the bill followed testimony Jan. 19 in the House committee on state government from newly elected Yakima City Council members Avina Gutiérrez and Carmen Méndez. The pair shared the story about how the switch to district elections made it possible for them to become Yakima’s first Latino council members ever, in a city that is 40 percent Hispanic.
Moscoso said, “We have seen the promise of representative democracy fulfilled in cities like Yakima and Seattle, where district voting has produced governments that finally look like the citizens they represent. This bill would extend that promise to communities across Washington.”
The bill passed the House last session and was approved by the Senate Government Operations Committee, but was never scheduled for a vote of the full Senate.
State Rep. Derek Stanford is among the co-sponsors.
Moscoso and Stanford are Democrats representing the 1st Legislative District, including most of Mountlake Terrace, all of Brier and Bothell, unincorporated areas of Snohomish County north and east of Bothell, north Kirkland, and unincorporated areas of king County between Bothell and Kirkland.
Democratic State Sens. Maralyn Chase and Marko Liias are among sponsors of a companion bill in the senate. Chase represents the 32nd Legislative District including Lynnwood, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas, parts of Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace, the city of Shoreline and a small part of northwest Seattle. Liias represents the 21st Legislative District including most of Edmonds, unincorporated areas north of Edmonds and Lynnwood and northeast of Lynnwood, all of Mukilteo, and part of south Everett.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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