Voting and Redistricting Lawsuit News
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ACLU is Doing More Than Passing Through
The Lakota Journal
Saturday, November 9, 2002
Associated Press
http://www.lakotajournal.com
Feb.28-March 7, 2003
By Kim Karaff
Staff Writer Martin Bureau
MARTIN - Although elections are over for now, the Voting Rights
Project of the American Civil Liberties Union work in South Dakota continues.
One on-going lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of plaintiffs Carol Wilcox
and Joseph Bettelyoun against the town of Martin, has yet to be settled, and
in fact, appears to be headed back to court this spring.
Other cases in other cities and counties seem likely.
The lawsuit challenges Martin"s 2002 re-districting plan drawn up based on
data the town received following the 2000 census, which showed that the
population in Martin had shifted to such a degree from the previous census
that re-districting was in order.
The lawsuit alleges that the re-districting plan in question "intentionally
discriminates against Indian voters, according to Bryan Sells, ACLU attorney
in charge of the case.
Because of health problems, Joseph Bettelyoun plans to withdraw his name
from the lawsuit. Rebecca Three Stars and Pearl Cortier will be added as
plaintiffs as soon as Sells is able to file the needed briefs he said.
The suit asks that the city be required to re-draw its districts, that the
court mandate federal election monitors until such time that monitors are no
longer deemed necessary, and that the city be required to submit all future
voting plans to the Department of Justice Sells said.
"When we first got notice of the city"s re-districting plan, we went to
them and tried to show them that is was discriminatory. We suggested an
equitable plan, which they rejected in favor of the one that they adopted,”
Sells said.
According to Sells, the plan in question divides the Indian population and
distributes it among all three of the wards in such a way that it would be
nearly impossible for an Indian-supported candidate to win election.
"Last June, three candidates for city council were favored by Indian voters.
All three lost in spite of a huge Indian voter drive, which saw more Indian
voters come to the polls than in previous years,” he said.
Three Stars, a future plaintiff in the case, was one of the candidates
favored by Indian voters and who lost the election.
In the county elections, Indian voters were able to place two tribal members
on the school board and to unseat Sheriff Waterbury, who many Indian people
saw as targeting tribal members. A tribal member, Charlie Cummings took
office as sheriff last month. Sells attributes those results to the county"s
fairer districting plan and mostly to a large Indian voter turnout.
"It wouldn"t really matter how many Indian voters turned out to the city
election because the way the districts are drawn, they would always be in the
vast minority in each district even though Indian people comprise 45% of the
overall population in Martin and 36% of the voting population. Whites can
outvote Indians in every single ward by a margin of nearly 3-1,” Sells said.
The plan that the ACLU recommended to the city kept three wards with two
council people from each ward, but divided the city in such a way that one of
the wards contained a majority of Indian voters.
Sells was in Martin last week gathering evidence in preparation for the
trial. He said that city officials were cooperating as well as could be
expected.
One thing that Sells says he and his assistant are looking for are records or
minutes that might show that previous election plans in Martin were
intentionally developed in a discriminatory manner.
"We are looking to see if a pattern exists whereby Indian voters in Martin
have historically and purposefully been excluded from the voting process," he
said.
Sells said that some people believe that the ACLU has placed a great deal of
attention on Martin to the exclusion of other cities and towns that border
the state"s Indian reservations and where Indian people are disenfranchised
or unfairly targeted in equally egregious ways or even more so.
"The ACLU is not finished in South Dakota,” he said. "We are looking at
other cities and counties, and where we find inequity, we will file other
lawsuits if there is no other recourse."
Sells, whose office is in Atlanta, Georgia and who graduated from Columbia
Law School in New York City said, "It"s beginning to feel like I am doing
more than just passing through South Dakota."
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