AMERICAN voters are getting an earful these days about how decisive the Latino vote will be in the presidential election. Let's remember the high stakes for communities of color in state and local elections. Local leaders make most of the crucial decisions that affect our daily lives.
Washington state is doing a dismal job of electing Latinos that represent their rapidly growing populations in many parts of our state. We can, and should, enact state voting reforms to change that.
At Whitman College, students conducted intensive studies of Latino political representation through our community-based research program on "The State of the State for Washington Latinos" (www.walatinos.org). From out in the wheat fields and vineyards of Eastern Washington, their findings paint a devastating picture of racial and ethnic inequality.
Whitman researchers examined political representation in local government in the 10 counties where Latinos make up the highest percentages of county population: Skagit, Yakima, Walla Walla, Chelan, Grant, Adams, Okanogan, Franklin, Benton and Douglas counties.
In 2009, Latinos occupied barely 4 percent of local offices in a region where they accounted for nearly 33 percent of the population. Even worse, in the great majority of local offices there were no Latinos serving at all — no Latino hospital commissioners, fire commissioners or port commissioners. Not one Latino was serving in countywide office. READ MORE
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