Cypress officials are cutting up the city into five voting districts and moving forward with an election map after a California Voting Rights Lawsuit claimed at-large voting systems disenfranchised Asian American residents.
[Read: Cypress Voters to See Big Changes Ahead of November 2024 Election]
But two elected officials are raising concerns on the map – with Councilmember Frances Marquez arguing that the map chosen and the election sequence to fill the seats would “draw her out of her district.”
City council members are expected to finalize their decision at their 5 p.m. meeting today.
In a district election system, residents can only vote for one candidate running to represent their district where they live. Additionally, candidates can only run for office in the district they live in.
In at-large elections – the voting system previously used by Cypress – all residents were able to cast a vote for however many seats were listed on the ballot. For example, if there were three city council seats up for grabs, any resident could vote for three different candidates.
At the Feb. 26 City Council meeting, Cypress officials narrowly voted 3-2 on combining two proposed election maps to break up the city into districts at Mayor Scott Minikus’ request.
Councilmembers Frances Marquez and David Burke were the dissenting votes.
Minikus successfully called for the top part of proposed map titled 135 that includes the first and second voting districts to be combined with the bottom part of a proposed map titled 133 where more than half the citizen voting age population is Asian American in the third district.
They also voted to put the newly created district 3 and 4 seats up for election this year.
To view the maps, click here.
Minikus said the combination would carve out more Latino voters in district 2 and allow two council members to represent the business park area in the southern part of the city.
“It gives a much better balance of districts one and two,” he said.
Marquez – the lone woman of color on the dais and one of the only officials in favor of districting – pushed back on the move, arguing that it would keep her out of office.
“My colleagues chose to waste between $700,000 to a million taxpayer dollars to protect their seats, because they all live near each other,” she said at the Feb. 26 meeting.
“It is not fair to draw me out of my district. I have to say this, again. I want the people of Cypress to know that the process for people getting elected here is not fair for everyone.”
Councilwoman Anne Mallari pushed back on Marquez’s comments and said she wasn’t the only one on the dais going to be impacted by districting.
“I’m not really sure how much we’re even supposed to be talking about the impact of the districts on us as incumbents. I think that is one of the things we were told was against the law,” she said. “I’m no longer in a district.”
Marquez, who is running for county supervisor, also said that it was hard to visualize the map without it being laid out already.
“That’s a concern,” Marquez said at the meeting. “It’s hard to vote on something that we don’t have a hard copy on in front of us to see exactly how it’s going to look and what the citizen voting age population is going to be.”
She wasn’t the only one with concerns on the map.
Burke said he had mixed feelings about having the business park in two districts – saying it would keep residents living near the park and the properties impacting their quality of life in two different districts.
He also questioned why they would use the top of map 135 at all, arguing the borders outlined in map 133 are more natural and said map 135 uses Sumner Avenue as a border, leaving Forest Lawn Parkway on one side of the street which he said was often filled with trash.
“To bisect a residential street and tell the people on one side of the street where you live, you’re in district two and on the other side of the street where there’s a pile of trash and junk that affects your kids. It’s a different district that just doesn’t sit right with me,” Burke said
Mallari said regardless of the district they represent she is confident the council will govern for the entire city.
“We would be absolutely continuing the efforts to clean up that neighborhood, regardless of the districting,” she said.
Mallari also said the business district should have two council members on the dais.
“The Business Park is one of the unique components of our city. A city of our size with a business park of this size is the result of some very wise planning by people that came well before us,” she said.
The new map comes months ahead of the November 2024 presidential election and after over a year of city officials voicing opposition to the switch to by-district elections.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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