Affirmative Action in an American Election!

Bet you never thought that Affirmative Action would effect how elections are run, did ya? In the village of Port Chester in New York a federal judge ordered that each Latino should receive SIX votes per person in the upcoming elections.  That's right - 6 votes per Latino to give them a chance to elect a minority in this roughly 46% Latino but many of them are not American citizens, are not registered to vote or are too young.

So on June 15th, 2010, they elected their first Latino trustee.  This was done under Cumulative Voting in which the Latinos would have greater minority representation, even minorities who were not registered to vote gained greater representation.  With six open seats on the village board and 13 candidates each voter was given 6 votes. Voters were allowed to cast all of their six votes for one person.

Judge Stephen Robinson said this was alright after the Department of Justice sued the Village of Port Chester in 2006 claiming the Latino population was not fairly represented under the Voting Rights Act.

Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution is now being brought up in the discussion as I am sure this is going to be appealed.  One person, one vote.  So much for the Constitution.