{"id":1627,"date":"2020-02-12T16:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T00:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sdc.wastateleg.org\/saldana\/?p=1627"},"modified":"2020-02-12T16:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T00:50:00","slug":"saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/2020\/02\/12\/saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Salda\u00f1a bill would protect voting power of underrepresented groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>OLYMPIA \u2013 <\/strong>Senator Rebecca Salda\u00f1a (D-Seattle) dropped a bill today that would require certain counties, cities and towns to secure prior approval for proposed changes in electoral practices that would dilute the voting power of racial and\/or ethnic groups.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=6688&amp;Initiative=false&amp;Year=2019\">Senate Bill 6688<\/a> would require jurisdictions with a large population from a single racial, ethnic, or language minority group to submit the changes to either the State Attorney General or a Superior Court for approval before implementing them.\u00a0 The bill also gives affected voters the right to appeal in the case that the Attorney General does not object to the change.<\/p>\n<p>The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/shelby-cnty-v-holder-8\"><em>Shelby County v. Holder<\/em><\/a> rendered unenforceable federal &#8220;pre-clearance,&#8221; a critical tool to prevent state and local governments from voting restrictions that disproportionately impact underrepresented groups. Pre-clearance ensured that these practices received impartial review before being allowed to go into effect. Currently, such practices can be stopped only by litigation, which lasts years and allows new laws affecting entire communities to be passed in the meantime by elected officials who were elected on the basis of those practices.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwpb.org\/2019\/11\/04\/5-years-after-lawsuit-votes-of-latinx-residents-are-at-issue-in-yakima-government-change-debate\/\">City of Yakima<\/a> has struggled with such issues for years <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=159859795\">after being sued by the ACLU in 2012<\/a>. That city continues to be embroiled in debate about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/politics\/yakima-city-council-pulls-strong-mayor-question-off-february-ballot\/\">changes to its governmental structure<\/a> that would dilute the voting power of ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the last few years, we have made great progress on protecting the voting rights of the people of Washington state,\u201d said Salda\u00f1a.\u00a0 \u201cPractices that weaken the voting rights of our communities of color must not be allowed to stand for years while litigation is underway. Empowerment through the right to vote cannot wait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">###<\/p>\n<p>For interviews &amp; information:<\/p>\n<p>Nicole Herrera, Senate Democratic Communications, 360-786-7050<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OLYMPIA \u2013 Senator Rebecca Salda\u00f1a (D-Seattle) dropped a bill today that would require certain counties, cities and towns to secure prior approval for proposed changes in electoral practices that would dilute the voting power of racial and\/or ethnic groups. Senate Bill 6688 would require jurisdictions with a large population from a single racial, ethnic, or language minority group to submit the changes to either the State Attorney General or a Superior Court for approval before implementing them.\u00a0 The bill also gives affected voters the right to appeal in the case that the Attorney General does not object to the change&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":1629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Salda\u00f1a bill would protect voting power of underrepresented groups - Sen.Alpha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/2020\/02\/12\/saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salda\u00f1a bill would protect voting power of underrepresented groups - Sen.Alpha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OLYMPIA \u2013 Senator Rebecca Salda\u00f1a (D-Seattle) dropped a bill today that would require certain counties, cities and towns to secure prior approval for proposed changes in electoral practices that would dilute the voting power of racial and\/or ethnic groups. Senate Bill 6688 would require jurisdictions with a large population from a single racial, ethnic, or language minority group to submit the changes to either the State Attorney General or a Superior Court for approval before implementing them.\u00a0 The bill also gives affected voters the right to appeal in the case that the Attorney General does not object to the change....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/2020\/02\/12\/saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sen.Alpha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T00:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/02\/element5-digital-1126261-unsplash-ballot-box-hand-vote-voting-scaled-e1581554927762.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"westc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"westc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/2020\/02\/12\/saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/alpha\/2020\/02\/12\/saldana-bill-would-protect-voting-power-of-underrepresented-groups\/\",\"name\":\"Salda\u00f1a bill would protect voting power of underrepresented groups - 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