Election Reforms Need Voters : Low registration negates power gain made by Latinos in redrawn 8th District

Who among the 11 candidates in four San Diego City Council races are the best people to conduct the public’s business is a matter for separate discussion, closer to the Sept. 17 election.

But thousands of city residents will have effectively cast their ballots before Aug. 19--by not registering to vote.

This is particularly true in the 8th District, which covers most of the southern part of the city. Only 32.5% of those 18 and over are registered in the 8th District, in contrast to a 64% rate citywide.

Ironically, this election is one in which registration should be up in the 8th. A historic voting rights suit by the Chicano Federation produced two major changes in the city’s electoral laws and landscape that should give Latinos a fairer chance at representation:

District elections were instituted, which prevents a citywide electorate from defeating a district-chosen candidate.

And the boundaries of the City Council districts were redrawn. Instead of the city’s 21% Latino population being divided among several districts, thereby diluting its political clout, the 8th District was redrawn to make it 61.5% Latino.

But the same redistricting that established a strong Latino majority--by transferring Anglos to other districts--also slashed the number of voters in the district. Why? Because, historically, Anglos register and vote in larger numbers than Latinos.

Changing that will take at least as much work as the institutional reforms, and maybe more.

Yet, in the three months since the end of the redistricting battle, there’s been little visible registration effort.

The Chicano Federation has not followed through on its victories with massive voter registration drives, as groups trying to enfranchise Latinos have done in Los Angeles and other communities.

Instead, the federation has turned its attention to the upcoming reapportionment of county supervisorial districts.

The candidates in the 8th District also have shown disturbingly little registration activity.

Challenger Andrea Palacios Skorepa, who had a volunteer-staffed registration and “awareness” drive scheduled for this weekend, says funds are low and must be used for getting out people who are known to vote.

And political analysts say incumbent Bob Filner has little to gain by spending his money on increasing the ranks of voters, most of whom presumably would be Latino.

It would probably be politically naive to expect Filner to follow through on his proper assertion that “it’s an insult to the people in my district to assume that they will vote based on race or ethnic group.”

If he believes what he says, he has little to lose, and the community has much to gain, if he devotes some of his campaign resources to sign up as many potential voters as possible in these last few days before the registration deadline, Aug. 19.

Ultimately, however, the obligation to register and vote rests with each citizen over 18. In all of the districts.

District elections increased the neighborhood voice in city affairs.

But, with a citywide registration rate of 64% and a turnout of 25.5%, as in the 1987 district races, this voice is barely louder than a whisper.