Daily Herald: Nonprofit: Carpentersville Could Do More to Engage Latino Residents in Politics
Carpentersville officials say they will consider reevaluating their election policies amid allegations their voting system could be stifling minority representation on the village board.
The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington D.C., is claiming the village's practice of electing its six trustees at-large contributes to vote dilution of the Latino community -- a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Carpentersville officials say they will consider reevaluating their election policies amid allegations their voting system could be stifling minority representation on the village board.
The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington D.C., is claiming the village's practice of electing its six trustees at-large contributes to vote dilution of the Latino community -- a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
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The CLC released a report in 2014 identifying Carpentersville as one of dozens of communities with an increasing number of minority residents that had all-white governing bodies. The organization now is following up with those towns ahead of the 2020 census "to see if we can make a change," Greenwood said.
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Additionally, the organization found the village's minority populations to have low civic involvement and voter turnout, which Greenwood attributed to "a feeling of helplessness." Those frustrations likely stem from a racially charged 2007 election, she said, when a slate of candidates called the "All-American Team" campaigned on platforms of cracking down on undocumented immigrants and making English the official language of the village.
Changing its voting system is one way Carpentersville could better engage the Latino community and avoid a potential lawsuit, Greenwood said. The CLC believes it's possible to draw a redistricting map containing six single-member districts, two of which would have a majority of Latino voters, she said.
Carpentersville could also consider adopting instant runoff voting, which would keep an at-large system and allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, Greenwood said. Election officials would use those rankings to determine the winners, while also accounting for cohesion among voting blocs.
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The organization plans to organize a meeting with village officials and community members to discuss possible solutions, which could be as simple as offering village board materials in Spanish, Greenwood said.