Mission Viejo City Fights District-Based Voting Lawsuit

Press release from the City of Mission Viejo:

May 12, 2022

The City is responding to a lawsuit filed in the Orange County Superior Court by a resident opposed to Mission Viejo’s move to district-based voting.

Michael Schlesinger is challenging the adoption of the ordinance that implements the City’s new district voting process including how incumbents should be included in the initial election in November 2022.

The move to district-based elections is something the City and many residents have opposed since the City – like many other cities – was sued by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which claimed its at-large election system diluted the vote of the Latino community and violated the California Voting Rights Act.

It was determined that Mission Viejo's unique demographic and geographic characteristics made district-based voting a poor remedy to empower minority voters and cure the unintended violation of the California Voting Rights Act identified in 2018. To achieve a remedy, the Orange County Superior Court approved a jointly submitted motion to make cumulative voting a reality in Mission Viejo.

However, despite the Council's extraordinary efforts on behalf of this community, the State did not allow the cumulative voting method in Mission Viejo or any City absent legislative action in Sacramento, and the decision was made to move to a district-based election system beginning in November.

“This lawsuit by Mr. Schlesinger is completely without merit, and the City looks forward to vigorously defending it and prevailing in court,” said City Attorney William Curley. “The City has diligently worked in good faith to lawfully comply with those stipulations and has done just that.”

The Secretary of State ultimately opposed the implementation of cumulative voting in Mission Viejo, and as a result, the City worked to expeditiously and lawfully implement the alternative district-based voting as called for in the stipulated judgement. Therefore, in essence, Michael Schlesinger’s lawsuit is challenging the actions the City is taking to lawfully comply with the stipulated judgement from 2018.

“In doing so, this lawsuit actively seeks to chill the City’s First Amendment right to free speech, and baselessly challenges the lawful enactment of the very system the City was sued to enact in the first place,” City Attorney William Curley said.

The City will continue to move forward with implementing district-based voting, which will create more appropriate representation for Mission Viejo residents, especially the Latino community.

This press release was produced by the City of Mission Viejo. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

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