petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog

7because the City has substantially more White voters thanHispanic voters, the at-large electoral system violated theVRA by diluting the voting power of Hispanic voters andthus denying them an opportunity to elect a representativeof their choice. Id.Benavidez proposed replacing the at-large systemwith what he termed the “Plan 6-2-1,” which dividedthe City into six single-member districts, two at-largedistricts, and a single mayor. The key attribute of Plan6-2-1 was the creation of District 1—a district designedto be majority Hispanic. Only by proposing such a districtcould Benavidez meet his burden under Section 2 of theVRA of showing that eliminating the at-large systemwould result in the creation of a district where the citizenvoting age population (“CVAP”) of the minority groupexceeds 50% of the relevant population. App. 55a-56a(citing Gingles, 478 U.S. at 50 n.17). That is, Benavidezneeded to show—using CVAP data—that the districtcourt could draw such a district in order to establish thatthe City’s minority population would possess the votingpower to elect its desired candidate of choice absent theat-large voting scheme. Id. (citation omitted).The City objected to replacing the at-large systemwith the 6-2-1 Plan. Importantly, the City argued, interalia, that because District 1 would contain a comparativelyfar fewer number of eligible voters, Benavidez’s plan tocreate a majority-Hispanic district would dilute the votesof those eligible voters residing in the other five districtsin violation of the Equal Protection Clause’s one-person,one-vote principle. Id. 23a.