petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog
petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog
petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog
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63aAppendix Dpolitically cohesive. Gingles, 478 U.S. at 51, 106 S.Ct.2752. According <strong>to</strong> Gingles, “if <strong>the</strong> minority group is notpolitically cohesive, it cannot be said that <strong>the</strong> selection ofa multimember elec<strong>to</strong>ral structure thwarts distinctiveminority group interests.” Id. The <strong>Court</strong> concludes thatHispanic voters in Irving are politically cohesive, i.e., <strong>the</strong>ytend <strong>to</strong> vote as a bloc.Dr. Engstrom considered <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>to</strong> which Hispanicvoters support <strong>the</strong> same candidates, and looked <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong>gap between <strong>the</strong> percentage of votes for <strong>the</strong> minoritypreferredcandidate and <strong>the</strong> non-preferred candidate.He demonstrated that Hispanic voters in Irving votedcohesively in <strong>the</strong> three elections examined, in 2005 and2008. The methods utilized by Dr. Engstrom, ER and EIanalysis, have been accepted by numerous courts in votingrights cases. See e.g., United States v. Village of PortChester, No. 06 Civ. 15173(SCR), 2008 WL 190502, at *25(S.D.N.Y. Jan. 17, 2008). Plaintiff has <strong>the</strong>refore satisfied<strong>the</strong> second Gingles precondition.2. White Majority Bloc VotingTo satisfy <strong>the</strong> third Gingles precondition, Plaintiffmust demonstrate that “<strong>the</strong> white majority votessufficiently as a bloc <strong>to</strong> enable it-in <strong>the</strong> absence of specialcircumstances, such as <strong>the</strong> minority candidate runningunopposed-usually <strong>to</strong> defeat <strong>the</strong> minority’s preferredcandidate.” Gingles, 478 U.S. at 51, 106 S.Ct. 2752. Provingthis third point enables <strong>the</strong> minority group <strong>to</strong> show that“submergence in a white multimember district impedesits ability <strong>to</strong> elect its chosen representatives.” Id. Fur<strong>the</strong>r,