Activist judges force municipalities to use RCV
by Harry Roth
Ranked-choice voting advocates have been selling the election system not just as a way to break the two-party system and moderate politics, but also as a way to achieve racial and gender “equity.” Now, activist judges around the country are imposing the system on locales based on that same flawed rationale.
The first documented instance of this judicial tyranny happened earlier this year in the Town of Newburgh, NY, which is governed by a board of five members elected by an at-large system. Some minority residents took issue with the fact that the Town Board was composed of mostly white people and filed a lawsuit claiming that the town’s electoral system violated the New York Voting Rights Act. For reference, the town is 55.7% non-Hispanic white.
The town argued the Act violates the U.S. Constitution, but the New York Court of Appeals ruled against them, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. The case was settled this year when the town agreed to implement ranked-choice voting.
An even more egregious situation occurred this past June, when an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered the city of Huntington Beach, CA, to adopt ranked-choice voting. Judge Craig L. Griffin ruled that the city’s at-large system violated the California Voting Rights Act. The city appealed based on the U.S. Constitution and the city’s charter. Huntington Beach is also demanding a jury trial.
So, what do the Town of Newburgh and Huntington Beach have in common besides being forced to adopt ranked-choice voting? Both are Republican municipalities in blue states.
Left-wing judges are starting to realize that RCV can be used as a weapon to turn red cities and towns blue. Over 60% of Huntington Beach’s residents are white, and its six-member council consists of five white members and one Hispanic member. Nothing about that composition seems racist given the city’s demographics and the fact that most minorities don’t vote based solely on racial kinship.
The racial equity argument for RCV is often made by its proponents; FairVote, for example, has written many blogs supporting the use of RCV to achieve racial “equity.” Still, it seems as though the true racism is found in the blue state legislatures passing these voting rights acts, the governors signing off on them, and the activist judges imposing ranked-choice voting from the bench.