FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2002 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRT (202) 616-2777 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. The Justice Department today announced it has reached an agreement to settle its three-year-old voting rights case against the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Under the settlement agreement, now awaiting court approval, the city will adopt a new districting plan for its city council and school committee that increases opportunities for Hispanic voters to elect representatives of their choice to both governing bodies under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The city has also agreed to appoint to its Board of Registrars of Voters at least one member who is bilingual in Spanish and English, and appoint a full-time bilingual staff member to the elections office at City Hall when a vacancy occurs. The city has also agreed to consult the Hispanic community liaison group, set up by the city's agreement with the Justice Department in 1999, about these appointments.
"Today's agreement underscores the Justice Department's commitment to ensure all citizens have the right to participate fully in the democratic process of voting," said J. Michael Wiggins, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "We are pleased that the City of Lawrence has taken these steps to bring its Hispanic citizens more fully into the political process." "This settlement shows that the Voting Rights Act is still a powerful tool in our nation's effort to bring to all our citizens, including those who belong to racial or language minorities, a fair chance to make their vote count," said Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. The Justice Department is committed to making sure that opportunity is truly equal, now and in the future." The Justice Department sued the city of Lawrence in 1998 to eliminate numerous barriers that the city's Hispanic citizens faced in casting their votes, and to obtain fair election systems for the city council and school committee.
A partial settlement between the Department and the city in 1999 resulted in the hiring of many more Hispanic and Spanish-speaking poll workers and a full-time Hispanic election coordinator. The city also agreed to adopt single-member districts for school committee seats starting with the 2001 elections, and made a commitment to draw districting plans for city council and school committee after the 2000 Census that complied with the Voting Rights Act.
In June 2001 the city adopted election plans that the Department believed unfairly diluted the votes of Lawrence's Hispanic citizens, and the Department filed new claims against those plans. This settlement resolves those claims.
Prior to the filing of the Justice Department's original 1998 lawsuit, less than 5 percent of all poll workers in the city were bilingual in Spanish and English; Hispanics were 34.5% of Lawrence's registered voters; only one Hispanic had ever served on the city's school committee (comprised of six members plus the mayor); and only one Hispanic had ever served on the nine-member city council. In November 1999, two additional Hispanics were elected to the council, one to an at-large position and one from a district that had grown to a Hispanic majority. All three Hispanic council members, two elected from districts and one elected from the city at large, were re-elected in 2001. Today many more city poll workers are bilingual in Spanish and English, while Hispanics are 43.7% of the city's registered voters, a 25% increase in the three years since the Department filed its lawsuit.
The city's redrawn districting plan, to be used for the next city council and school committee elections in 2003, will afford Hispanic voters the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates to one more district-based seat on the city council and school committee than was afforded in the plan used for the 2001 elections. Three of the six districts in the new plan will have Hispanic voter registration majorities; three city council seats will continue to be elected city-wide. In addition to the revised districting plan and the appointment of bilingual individuals to the Board of Registrars and the city elections office staff, the agreement permits the Justice Department to return to court if, after the 2003 municipal elections, the Department determines that further proceedings are necessary to secure for Lawrence's Hispanic citizens the rights guaranteed to them under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Justice Department Internet site at www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting. 02-100
Source: US Department of Justice
