Sunnyside SD Avoids Voting Act Lawsuit With Settlement

Earlier this week the ACLU of Washington announced a resolution regarding alleged violations of the Washington State Voting Rights Act leveled against the Sunnyside School District regarding school board elections.  In April of this year, Empowering Latina Leaders & Action (ELLA) through the ACLU of WA, notified the school district of an intent to pursue litigation over the results of the 2023 school board elections.

ELLA believed Latino votes were being diluted based on how the at large election system.  North of 90% of Sunnyside students are of Hispanic or Latino descent, and it was alleged that the representation on the school board did not match the composition of the district positions because of the at large election structure.

After months of negotiations the Sunnyside School District agreed to a resolution with ELLA to restructure the election system and redraw the voting districts in time for the 2025 primary election where all five school board positions will be decided.

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What Will Change Under The Agreement?

The first change will be that Sunnyside School District elections will now be district only elections.  That includes the primary and the general election.  This happened in Yakima ten years ago as a result of a lawsuit claiming violations of the Voter Rights Act. It happened again in 2022 in Franklin County.  This year's election features district only voting for Commissioner in the primary and general elections as a result of their settlement.

The second change will be the redrawing of voter maps, commonly called redistricting.  The voter maps will be drawn to better reflect the population, specifically the Hispanic/Latino population within the Sunnyside School District.  The maps need to be redrawn and approved in time for the 2025 primary election.

The third change is that all of the school board seats will be up for grabs.  Normally there is a staggering of seats up for election to ensure that the entire elected board is not replaced at one time.  In this case, all five positions will be decided in next year's election.  The final part of the agreement was that the Sunnyside School District would pay the ACLU of Washington's statutory legal fees.