The Village of Port Chester, Latinos and Cumulative Voting

The Village of Port Chester has a population of nearly 30,000 people, half of whom are Latino. But Latinos are only 20% of the voting age citizenry, so they had never elected one of their candidates of choice to the village Board of Trustees.  The Department of Justice sued in 2006 under the Voting Rights Act, and a federal judge agreed that the Village's at-large voting system deprived Latinos of fair representation.  In response, DOJ pushed for the creation of single member districts, while the village preferred a cumulative voting system.  This is a system where all voters receive multiple votes, which they may cast on any candidate they want, and can even cast them all on one candidate if they wish.  The federal judge sided with the village and ordered use of the cumulative voting system.

Yesterday, the election finally took place, and a Latino finally broke through and won election to the village board.  The candidate, Luis Marino, received the fourth highest number of votes from among 13 candidates.  The lessons of this election, and the process that led to Mr. Marino's election, are many.