PORT CHESTER, N.Y. – Arthur Furano voted early — five days before Election Day. And he voted often, flipping the lever six times for his favorite candidate. Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.
Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday.
Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.
Federal Judge Stephen Robinson said that violated the Voting Rights Act, and he approved a remedy suggested by village officials: a system called cumulative voting, in which residents get six votes each to apportion as they wish among the candidates. He rejected a government proposal to break the village into six districts, including one that took in heavily Hispanic areas.
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. – An unusual election in a New York City suburb, in which voters could cast six ballots for one candidate, apparently resulted Wednesday in the first Hispanic elected to the village Board of Trustees.
Luis Marino, a school district maintenance director, was in fourth place among 13 candidates for six trustee positions in the final but unofficial vote count, said Aldo Vitagliano, a spokesman for the village of Port Chester.
Marino, a Democrat, had 1,962 votes, well back of leader Bart Didden, an independent, who had 2,576. But Marino was well ahead of the seventh-place candidate, who had 1,272. Only 28 affidavit ballots remained to be counted, Vitagliano said.
Marino, 43, was thrilled.
"I am very happy, and I hope to do my best," he said. "I was happy to do whatever the people decided."
The court-imposed election was held after a federal judge ruled that Port Chester's conventional at-large trustee elections violated the Voting Rights Act. Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.
Although the average American would deny the reality of this evil plot-This is the coming trend. Why are you surprised. Kagan, Ginsberg and Sotomaior are all in this stripe. You elected democraps and they appointed their Harvard Law buddies to be judges. Suck it up, whitey. You will be the slave now since it is time for "social justice" and a righting of the wrongs of slavery and oppression of the indigenous people. Minorities will get six votes and if we let you even exist, you will get one. if you complain, off to the insane asylum where Boxarox gets to be warden. There you can be reprogrammed since you are obviously mad for disagreeing with the new order.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
By JIM FITZGERALD The Associated Press Friday, June 18, 2010; 3:41 PM
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. -- The court-ordered election that allowed some New Yorkers to flip the lever six times for one candidate - and produced a Hispanic winner - could expand to other towns where minorities complain their voices aren't being heard.
But first, interested parties will want to take a look at the exit surveys.
The unusual election was imposed on Port Chester after a federal judge determined that Hispanics were being treated unfairly.
The 2010 Census is expected to show large increases in Latino populations and lawsuits alleging discrimination are likely to increase, said Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote, a nonprofit election research and reform group.
"The country's been changing in a lot of places, with minority growth in exurbs and commuter cities, and there will be a realization that those minorities can't elect candidates of choice," Richie said.
That will leave minority groups, federal prosecutors and municipalities looking for ways to keep elections from violating the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities' constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
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