Word: section
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...organization, sued the state of Texas, charging that countywide elections for district judges diluted minority votes and thus reduced minority representation in the judiciary. Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court dismissed the suit, reasoning that that judges are not "public servants," and therefore their elections need not adhere to Section Two of the 1982 Voting Rights...
...Section Two of the 1982 Act was intended to establish criteria by which unfair elections could be identified. Democrats wanted a law that would allow minorities to contest elections based soley on the final vote tally. For example, if a district of 90 percent Black voters elected only white candidates, the outcome would be immediately suspect. Republicans sought a more difficult standard of proof, whereby complaintants, in order to contest an election, would have to show that minorities were somehow prevented from voting...
...compromise that finally cleared Congress stated that the results in an election can be one factor among a "totality of circumstances" that indicate an unfair election. Section Two creates a standard to discover laws that undermine the integrity of the vote...
...court should have focused on how the vote was undertaken, not on what the vote was deciding. Somehow the federal court believed that Congress explicitly shielded judicial elections from the voting act's standards. It's difficult to know where that notion came from, since Section Two demands fairness in the "political process" and "representatives of their choice"--terms that presumably apply to all democratic elections...
...Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that Georgia's judicial election system is subject to federal review in accordance with another section of the Voting Rights Act. Because the Texas ruling will be appealed, the Supreme Court will have to rule on whether Section Two also applies to judicial elections...