On November 30, three Hispanic voters in Compton, California, filed a lawsuit in state court to overturn that city’s at-large elections for city council.  The case is Gonzalez v City of Compton, BC450494.  Compton is in Los Angeles County and has a population that is 67.6% Hispanic, but no Hispanic has been elected to the city council since before 1999.  The lawsuit depends on California’s Voting Rights Act of 2001.  Here is the complaint.

Compton elects four city council members, and a Mayor, in at-large elections.  However, four city council districts exist, and only one resident of each district may be elected.  The Mayor and members of the council have 4-year terms, and there are two city council positions filled every two years.

On December 20, the New York State Court of Appeals, the highest state court in that state, heard arguments in Johnson v Martins, over whether there should be a recount in one very close State Senate race.  The New York law on recounts was written back when New York used mechanical voting machines, and does not seem very useful now that New York votes on paper ballots that are scanned by vote-counting machines.  See this story.  Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the news.

The race is in the 7th State Senate district.  The first count shows Republican Jack Martins with 451 more votes than Democrat Craig Johnson, out of 85,000 ballots.  The web page for the New York State Board of Elections has official general election returns in general from last month’s election, but shows no totals for this race since it is still uncertain.  The Court is likely to rule by December 21.  UPDATE:  on December 20, the Court ruled that no recount should be held.  Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for this news.

The attorneys who filed the Iowa lawsuit over judicial retention requirements have withdrawn their request for injunctive relief.  Therefore, the three State Supreme Court Justices who were ousted by the voters last month will leave the court, regardless of the eventual outcome of the lawsuit.  See this story.  It seems the judges were not comfortable with the idea that they might remain on the court via a technicality.

The Iowa Constitution says judicial retention elections must be on separate ballots, a requirement that the state ignored in last month’s election.  The state put the judicial retention elections on the same ballot that was used to elect federal, state and local officials.