Beyond District Lines: Rethinking the California Voting Rights Act’s Promise of Fair Representation

The California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) spurred hundreds of cities, school districts, and other local governments to transition from at-large to district-based elections. Although the CVRA attempts to address racial vote dilution, this Note finds that the CVRA creates unique incentives to adopt district-based elections, and that hundreds of California school districts have adopted district-based elections in the last twenty years. Drawing on data collected from school districts in the Bay Area, this Note finds that although the CVRA has likely had a positive effect on Latine and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) officeholding in Bay Area school districts, our findings align with existing literature that some Bay Area school districts see no or even negative changes in Latine and AAPI officeholding. This Note argues that California law should be reformed to permit alternatives to district-based elections, that might better improve minority officeholding. This Note further argues that the CVRA should be amended to remove current incentives which have discouraged the use of alternative election systems.