Vickie Ybarra: Federal voting rights protections still needed, even in Washington

Sometime between now and June, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could well spell the end of the landmark federal Voting Right Act. If what remains of federal voting rights fall, communities across the nation will lose needed protections – including communities right here in Washington state .

The centurieslong American struggle for equality in voting rights is based on the premise that all citizens should have equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted after previous federal laws failed to protect the voting rights of Black citizens, especially in the South, from states and local jurisdictions intent on suppressing their rights.

Despite the fact that Congress has reaffirmed and expanded the original act in five reauthorizations since then (most recently in 2006), in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court nullified the Section 4 preclearance provision. That provision had required select jurisdictions with long histories of disenfranchising voters to seek federal approval before changing their voting systems. Following that decision, many states have enacted restrictive and exclusionary voting laws.

That 2013 decision left Section 2, which says states and localities cannot structure elections “in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color,” as the last remaining federal provision protecting voting rights for citizens of color who may be unfairly excluded. Section 2 is most often used to enforce nondiscriminatory voting boundaries, so that boundaries used in elections for representatives to city councils, school boards, state legislatures and Congress are fair. It is this last remaining section that is under consideration by the court in the current case.

Even in Washington state, where many of us value the strength that comes from the diversity of our communities, Latino citizens in central Washington have needed the protections of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.

For example, in 2012 the city of Yakima was over 40% Latino, yet had never elected a Latino to the City Council. Like many cities its size, Yakima experiences moderate levels of residential segregation along racial/ethnic/income lines. The local City Council had historically preferred at-large and hybrid at-large voting systems that produced a majority of councilmembers from the wealthier and whiter parts of town. In the presence of residential segregation, at-large voting systems often result in less representation for residents from low-income and communities of color, and that is fundamentally unfair.

In 2012, after a series of unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Yakima City Council and voters to voluntarily implement voting by districts, local Latino citizens brought a case against the city under the federal Voting Rights Act. A federal judge agreed the act had been violated, and in 2015 the new fairer city voting districts resulted in record registration and turnout among Latino citizens.

With the election of the city’s first three elected Latina council members, the Yakima City Council more accurately reflected the local citizenry. The city of Pasco similarly implemented voting by districts as a result of a federal Section 2 case in 2016. More recently, central Washington Latino citizens brought a successful case under the federal Voting Rights Act, decided in 2023, to ensure more fair voting districts in the most recent redrawing of state legislative districts.

Washingtonians value voting rights protections. Our Legislature enacted the Washington Voting Rights Act in 2018, one of only nine states that have passed such legislation. State laws protecting voting are important, but limited. They cover local jurisdictions, but generally not congressional districts. The extent to which state laws may provide protection for state residents if the federal Voting Rights Act falls is unknown, given the reliance of state laws on the existence of federal voting rights protections, and the likelihood of litigation if the federal law were to fall. Federal legislation is still necessary to ensure elections and voting remain inclusive and fair.

We all benefit when legislative bodies – local, state and federal – reflect the people in their jurisdictions. Some say we should expect that race-based solutions, such as those that emanate from Section 2, should have a natural end. But examples from Washington state and elsewhere show that as our nation grows increasingly diverse, the federal Voting Rights Act remains one necessary tool to help ensure that all citizens have opportunity to choose their representatives.

Vickie Ybarra lives in Tacoma. She is a political scientist/policy scholar and author of the forthcoming book, “Protecting Voting Rights in an Unlikely Place: The Local Struggle for Latino Political Inclusion in Yakima” (WSU Press). The views expressed here are her own, and unrelated to her employment with the state of Washington.