LOOKING BACK AT 2017, AGENCIES STRUGGLE WITH ELECTIONS BY DISTRICT

One of the year’s top stories that will have the biggest impact on residents of the Morongo Basin is the change by a few local government agencies to district-based elections, from at-large elections. In September, the Town of Yucca Valley, City of Twentynine Palms, and Morongo Unified School District all received a letter from a Los Angeles-based lawyer threatening legal action unless they changed the way council and board members are elected. The lawyer, Kevin Shenkman, argues that the majority white voters who vote in “at-large” elections dilute the vote of minority voters, thereby violating the California Voting Rights Act. The dozens of California cities that have fought the change to district-based elections have all lost in court, and have been forced to pay Shenkman’s legal fees, which in the case of the city of Palmdale, was $4.5 million. While some residents have urged their elected representatives to fight the change, Yucca Valley, Twentynine Palms, and the school district have all taken the first steps to make the change to district elections, which will go into effect in November 2018.