SLO County citizens’ group announces lawsuit over Patten redistricting map
A San Luis Obispo County citizens’ group has announced plans to file a lawsuit over the redistricting map the Board of Supervisors adopted on Tuesday, calling it a “radical redistricting plan.”
SLO County Citizens for Good Government, a “bipartisan coalition of San Luis Obispo County residents,” plans to sue the county after the Board of Supervisors approved a map drawn by Arroyo Grande Richard Patten and backed by the local Republican Party, according to a news release.
The board formally adopted the map Tuesday afternoon on a 3-2 vote, with Lynn Compton, John Peschong and Debbie Arnold in favor and Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg opposed.
“We believe the supervisors’ formal adoption Tuesday of the so-called Patten map clearly violates California election law,” said Linda Seifert, a director of SLO County Citizens for Good Government, in the release.
“The far-right majority of the board did this on a 3-2 partisan vote solely to preserve their grip on power,” Seifert added. “They did it by tearing apart long-standing communities of interest and by disenfranchising tens of thousands of SLO County residents.”
The group has three other directors: former San Luis Obispo Police Chief Jim Gardiner, attorney Patricia Gomez and former Arroyo Grande Police Chief Rick TerBorch.
Why group opposes the Patten map
SLO County Citizens for Good Government opposes Patten’s map because it “cracks long-standing communities of interest, dilutes the voice of Latino voters in South County, and radically rearranges long-standing communities of interest,” said Mike Normoyle, a Nipomo attorney who is one of two working with the group, in the release. Jeffrey Stein of San Luis Obispo is also assisting the effort.
“This was done solely and demonstrably to gain a partisan advantage for elections next June and for the next decade in clear violation of the Fair Maps Act,” Normoyle added.
“Even though the county has considerably more Democrats than Republicans, the Patten map deliberately creates three districts with significantly more Republicans than Democrats,” Normoyle said. “The supervisors packed the remaining Democrats into two weirdly shaped districts. This is in clear violation of Section 21500 (d).
“Bear in mind that Democrats make up 38 percent of all voters while Republicans make up 34 percent, and all others 28 percent,” Normolye continued. “This is the very definition of radical gerrymandering.”
The group also pointed to the Patten map’s impact on the timing of certain district elections, in which residents of some areas will see their opportunity to vote delayed while others will accelerate. And members questioned conservative supervisors’ refusal to study what the partisan breakdown of the new districts would look like.
“Further demonstrating the partisanship of the supervisors’ redistricting, the Patten map makes about 7,200 historically Democrat voters, now scheduled to vote in 2022, wait until 2024 to cast a ballot,” Stein said. “Even then, the clustering of the Democrats into just two districts guarantees that the balance in the other three districts increases the Republican margins.
In fact, a Tribune data analysis showed the new map’s district boundaries further solidified the existing advantage Republicans already hold on the board.
“No wonder the board majority refused to have staff or even their own consultant look at the partisan effect of the Patten map,” Stein said.
“It’s hardly a coincidence that the Patten map enables many Republicans to vote in 2022 who wouldn’t otherwise be scheduled to vote until 2024, while it delays for two years the rights of thousands of Democrats to vote,” Stein said. “In a small county like ours, this tips the balance. The concept of majority rule is ignored, and the election law is violated.
Lawsuit will be filed ‘soon’
Normoyle said the group’s action comes after extensive opposition went unheeded by the conservatives on the board.
“Hundreds of people involved in this effort spent considerable time and energy over the past two months objecting to the Patten map, but the board majority not only ignored our concerns, they also resolutely ignored the law,” Normoyle said.
The group plans to “file suit soon,” and they will be raising money to help with their legal efforts, said Quinn Brady, a spokeswoman, in the release.
“This is a truly grassroots effort,” Brady said. “We have heard from hundreds of concerned citizens eager to contribute their time and money toward legal action, which signals the vast support of the community behind this effort. We are committed to handling all communication and support with complete transparency and accountability.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 4:26 PM.
