Federal Judge Mandates Affirmative Action Voting Scheme, Allows Six Votes Per Voter
In Port Chester, New York they have a problem, I guess. White people win too many elections. So, to fix that problem, the city leaders (with the help of a federal judge) have decided to rig the voting system so that more Hispanic candidates win.
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. – Arthur Furano voted early — five days before Election Day. And he voted often, flipping the lever six times for his favorite candidate. Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.
Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday.
Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.
Federal Judge Stephen Robinson said that violated the Voting Rights Act, and he approved a remedy suggested by village officials: a system called cumulative voting, in which residents get six votes each to apportion as they wish among the candidates. He rejected a government proposal to break the village into six districts, including one that took in heavily Hispanic areas.
First of all, as a white man, I find it more than a little insulting that whites winning elections is somehow inherently problematic. Barring any unfair election practices (and there’s nothing to indicate that is what has been happening), then the fact that whites have been winning elections in Port Chester is simply the will of the people.
Or, at least, the people who have been voting. If white voters complained that too many blacks in their town were getting elected they’d be dismissed as racists, and rightfully so. But too many whites? Well, it’s ok in our twisted PC culture to think that’s a problem.
Second, is anyone else more than little troubled by the fact that a federal judge is now scheming to rig an election process to reach a particular outcome? Again, barring any indication that past elections have been improperly held, we have a judge acting to essentially punish white candidates for winning too many elections.
If this were targeting blacks or Hispanics or gays or any of the other various victim groups the left loves to service this act would be met with outrage. But, again, it’s just white people. So it’s ok.
Because it’s different somehow.
Really, what more can we expect from the left? They’re all about equality of outcome as opposed to equality of opportunity. Rather than expecting better Hispanic candidates to appeal to a broader swath of voters, they expect the process to be rigged to achieve the outcome they prefer.
Tags: affirmative action, discrimination, elections, new york, port chester
