Every 10 years, Santa Clara County redraws district boundaries so that each district is substantially equal in population. The process also determines which neighborhoods and communities are grouped together for the purposes of electing county supervisors.
And every 10 years, the Board of Supervisors faces gerrymandering efforts designed to give one party or group an unfair advantage over another party or group.
This year is no different. The board last week, by a 3-2 vote, advanced three maps for further consideration: the Yellow, Purple and EE 2.0 maps.
The Yellow map, put forth by labor and civil rights groups, doesn’t pass the smell test. It not only very likely fails to meet the criteria set by the Voting Rights Act but also excludes two strong candidates — former San Jose City Councilman Johnny Khamis and Los Gatos Town Council Vice Mayor Rob Rennie — from running for the District 1 seat currently held by termed-out Supervisor Mike Wasserman. That in turn advances the candidacy of the two labor-friendly candidates, Santa Clara County Board of Education President Claudia Rossi and Morgan Hill Mayor Rich Constantine.
The County Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday to consider the three maps. It should eliminate the Yellow map from further consideration. The EE 2.0 map may need some tweaks, but it stands as the fairest map for all county residents.
One of the key components of the Voting Rights Act is Section 2, which “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups.”
We strongly support the provision. It was the key factor, for example, in forcing the city of Santa Clara to move to district voting, leveling the playing field for minority candidates seeking to serve on the City Council. And it has led to fairer elections throughout cities and counties in California.
But a key part of Section 2 requires those who draw maps to “perform a statistical analysis of election results to determine the degree of racially polarized voting” in a district. Maps are then supposed to be drawn based on the statistical analysis.
That analysis needs to performed to determine whether the proponents of the Yellow map are right in maintaining that it would boost representation for lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. But the law requires more than just a sense that it is true.
The Yellow map also violates the California Election Code criteria governing the redistricting process. The criteria says the county should “preserve the integrity of neighborhoods and local communities of interest, which are populations that share common social or economic interests that should be included within a single supervisorial district for purposes of effective and fair representation. Communities of interest do not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates.”
Supervisor races are non-partisan. But giving Rossi and Constantine a distinct edge in the District 1 race clearly violates the spirit of the criteria, if not the law itself.
Finally, lumping together nine different cities in District 5, ranging from Palo Alto to Los Gatos, would place an impossible burden on the supervisor representing the district. It’s hard enough for supervisors to represent three or four cities. Meeting the needs of residents in nine cities will inevitably lead to some cities getting unfairly shortchanged.
We understand the temptation for map drawers to achieve political goals in the redistricting process. But in the end, good government and what’s best for Santa Clara County must prevail.
