Mission Viejo will move to district-based voting

After more than three years working toward a cumulative voting system to benefit minority voters, the Mission Viejo City Council will move to a district-based election system beginning in November 2022.

District-based voting would carve the City up into geographic districts, which would each be represented on the City Council by someone who lives there. The decision to move to this voting system comes after exhausting all efforts to ensure the best outcome for this community. It was sparked by a 2018 lawsuit claiming the City’s at-large election system dilutes the vote of the Latino community. (See this webpage for information.) While many cities immediately adopted district voting without a challenge, the Mission Viejo City Council took proactive community-oriented steps to see if a violation did exist and – if so – how to remedy it.

Mission Viejo’s demographics were first analyzed to determine if the at-large voting system truly produced voting results that violated the California Voting Rights Act – and it did. The Council then worked to determine which voting structures used across the nation would give a “real” voice to minority voters rather than immediately moving to less beneficial district-based voting.

Since minority residents live throughout the City, as opposed to one specific area, district voting does not remedy the issue of racial discrimination in the at-large voting system.

In addition, the Council pursued statutory interpretations recommended and supported by the minority voters to give the best voice to the vote cast by minority voters.

However, despite the Council’s extraordinary efforts on behalf of this community, the State will not allow the cumulative voting method in Mission Viejo or another City absent legislative action in Sacramento.

“The California Voting Rights Act allows judicially approved alternatives to district-based voting,” said Council member Greg Raths, who serves on the Voting Rights Subcommittee with Mayor Trish Kelley, in a joint statement. “The worthy alternative includes cumulative or rank-choice voting. However, these options for change are seemingly too significant for State staff to authorize. Thus, as Sacramento will not allow rank-choice voting or cumulative voting to best serve our minority residents, we must now defer to the one-size-fits-all district voting remedy. It is unfortunate that the best interest of our minority voters cannot be served, but your City Council worked very hard to achieve a system that would give them a greater voice. We had sincerely hoped for a better outcome for Mission Viejo minority voters, but Sacramento is not allowing any option other than district voting absent expensive legislative and legal efforts.”

The City Council meets next on August 24 and will provide a comprehensive report.

“We have actively been pursuing what we had hoped to be in the best interests of our community,” said Mayor Trish Kelley. “We do now have a plan and will be returning in August to discuss district maps and what the process will be and how residents can get involved.”

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