Activists in Orange County are considering a voting rights lawsuit after a Latino supervisorial candidate lost a special election last month. Some activist say county district lines split Latino residents and dilute their voting power. This month, Vietnamese American attorney Andrew Do was sworn into office as First District Supervisor after beating career Latino politician Lou Correa in a special election by 43 votes. There are now three Asian American supervisors and two white supervisors. “(Latinos) have no voice in the county government,” said Latino activist Art Montez. “No voice in health care, they have no voice as to what public parks are going to get.
Latinos make up 34.2 percent of the population in Orange County, according to Census estimates in 2013. Most live in Anaheim and Santa Ana, the two largest Latino majority cities in the county.
But those cities are split among three districts on the Board of Supervisors, with the majority of Latinos concentrated in the First and Fourth Districts.
Montez said he and other activists have been thinking about whether to challenge the district boundaries in federal court.
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