The U.S. Justice Department wants a judge to declare that a Pennsylvania city’s method of electing council members citywide instead of by district has illegally diluted the political power of the country’s growing Hispanic population. In a lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that Hazleton violated the federal Voting Rights Act.
A complaint filed Tuesday in Scranton federal court alleges that the ‘blanket’ system “deprives Hispanic citizens of an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.”
The Justice Department under outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden is seeking a court order that the city, the five-member city council and Republican Mayor Jeff Cusat come up with a new system.
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Cusat said in an email Wednesday that he had just learned of the lawsuit and that he and other officials were preparing a statement.
City Council President Jim Perry declined to comment on the lawsuit itself, but said Hazleton’s growing base of Hispanic voters has not turned out in sufficient numbers to get one of their own elected. Perry said there are Latinx people on city councils and authorities.
“They run and they don’t make it,” Perry, a Republican, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “So for me it’s just that you have to vote.”
“The Hispanic population is a growing and important population” in Hazleton, U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a news release. “Those citizens should have the opportunity to elect candidates who represent their interests.”
Hazleton’s 30,000 residents are about two-thirds Hispanic, one-third non-Hispanic white and less than 2% non-Hispanic black, the lawsuit said. The voting age population of 17,000 is about 53% non-Hispanic whites, about 43% Hispanic, and almost 4% non-Hispanic blacks.
“Hazleton’s Hispanic community, including Spanish speakers with limited English, continues to suffer the consequences of discrimination in education, employment, housing and policing,” the Justice Department argued.
According to the lawsuit, no Hispanic candidate has ever been elected to the Hazleton City Council or appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Council. It claims that “racially polarized voting patterns characterize” municipal elections, with Hispanic candidates struggling to raise money, gain support and be invited to panel discussions and other campaign events.
A separate lawsuit filed a year ago by two Hispanic parents and currently pending before the same judge, U.S. District Judge Karoline Mehalchick, alleges that the at-large voting system for members of the Hazleton Area School Board has also excluded infringing Hispanic voters of the Voting Rights Act.
The school district filed a response in November saying it did not violate federal law and that it “denied or abridged the right of any person to vote on the basis of race or color.”
