December 02, 2005

Padilla v. Lever an issue in local recall

"Two councilmen facing a recall campaign may mount a legal challenge on the grounds the petition to put the recall on the ballot should have been multilingual.
A petition to recall Mayor Jay Imperial and Councilman Gary Taylor circulated in Rosemead earlier this year was written only in English, according to a backer of the recall effort. Petitioners gathered enough signatures to qualify a recall election that will be held Feb. 7.

A three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 23 that recall petitions written only in English are in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The case stems from the 2003 recall of a Santa Ana Unified School District board of education member.

The circuit panel concluded "The purpose of the bilingual provisions of the (Voting Rights) Act is to end the language disability of some citizens to full participation in the electoral process; and to this end the Act requires information relating to the electoral process be brought to their attention in both English and the minority language.

"Holding that these bilingual provisions do not apply to recall petitions would deny minority language speakers the right to fully participate in the electoral process by depriving them of the ability to consider the written arguments for and against a particular recall target."

Imperial and Taylor said their camps are considering the implications of the ruling upon the recall effort against them.

The story is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at December 2, 2005 08:15 AM