Federal judge rules in favor of cumulative voting system for district after ACLU lawsuit
ST. LOUIS– A federal judge ruled today in favor of a new, cumulative voting system for the Ferguson-Florissant School District’s process for electing school board members. Earlier this year, the judge found the school district was in violation of the Voting Rights Act after a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.
“An at-large cumulative voting system will afford African American voters in Ferguson-Florissant School District a genuine opportunity to exercise an electoral power that is commensurate with its population,” wrote U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel in the decision.
Both the election date and the at-large voting election of school board members will remain the same in the new plan.
In a cumulative voting system, voters still receive one vote for each available seat but may distribute their votes as they wish, either dividing their votes between different candidates or concentrating their votes by casting more than one vote for a single candidate.
Seats are awarded to the candidates with the most votes.
Cumulative voting allows voters to concentrate their full voting power behind their preferred candidate or candidates without requiring voters to give up any of the votes they are entitled to cast.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District did not offer any of its own proposed remedies for the Voting Rights Act violation. Instead, it proposed the district maintain the system found in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
"The African-American community in the Ferguson-Florissant School District will now be able to hold its government accountable and ensure that the school board is responsive to its needs,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. “This is a win for every student in the district.”
The Ferguson-Florissant School District has a history fraught with discrimination against African-American citizens. The district, which spans several municipalities, was created by a 1975 desegregation order intended to remedy the effects of discrimination against African-American students. Yet, 40 years later, there was just one African-American member on the seven-member board in a district where African-Americans constitute 77 percent of the student body.
"This remedy will help push back against decades of systemic racism,” said Julie Ebenstein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. "It is a much-needed step in the right direction."