Santa Ana Can Change Its Mind on Ward Vote

For years many Santa Ana residents have advocated the election of City Council members by district instead of citywide balloting, as is now the case. The measure came within 257 votes of being passed in Santa Ana two years ago and would probably have been approved if it had been better worded and had not included some unrelated changes.

The City Council came within one vote Monday night of putting the question of ward elections on the ballot again for city voters to decide in November. It still can, and should, change its mind. The deadline for the November ballot is Aug. 12. We urge the council to call a special session before then to authorize the ballot measure.

The drive for ward elections, which refuses to die in Santa Ana, was revived late last month when a federal appellate court ruled that at-large elections in the city of Watsonville in Northern California perpetuated discrimination against Latino residents.

The same two Latino groups that filed and won that federal court decision have been looking at the situation in Santa Ana, which has the largest minority concentration of any city in Orange County.

It seems inevitable that election by district will come to California’s larger, urban areas, if not by lawsuit, then by legislative action. Last year an unsuccessful bill in the Legislature sought to require cities with 25,000 or more residents to hold city council elections by district. The Santa Ana City Council opposed it.

Santa Ana is already divided into wards, and the City Charter requires candidates to live in the wards they seek to represent. The next logical step is to elect council members by ward too. It is hardly an unorthodox or untested concept. It’s done that way in Long Beach, Los Angeles and other cities. In most counties, supervisors are elected by district, as are state and federal representatives.

District elections would give minority candidates a better chance of winning office and help stimulate more minority participation in local government. For example, a black candidate has never been elected to the Santa Ana City Council; two carried their own wards but lost in citywide balloting.

Other candidates also would benefit from a change to election by district. Running in a ward rather than citywide would significantly cut campaign costs and open the possibility of council service to otherwise qualified people who don’t have the political war chests now needed to win.

The City Council should put the question of district elections before the people to decide, if for no other reason than to show the public and the courts that it is not trying to perpetuate discrimination and the status quo.