JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES VOTING RIGHTS SUIT AGAINST ALAMOSA COUNTY, COLORADO OVER THE METHOD OF ELECTING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - - The Justice Department today filed a voting rights lawsuit against Alamosa County, a county in the San Luis Valley in south central Colorado, alleging that its method of electing its governing body does not provide an equal opportunity for Hispanic citizens to elect candidates of their choice.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Denver, alleges that the at-large method used to elect the Board of Commissioners in Alamosa County, Colorado, violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it dilutes the voting strength of minorities.

"The Voting Rights Act guarantees that all citizens have the right to fully participate in the democratic process," said Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "Our goal is that today's lawsuit will remove the remaining obstacles that preclude Alamosa County's Hispanic citizens from having an equal opportunity to elect a representative of choice to the Board of Commissioners."

The lawsuit is the result of an investigation conducted by the Civil Rights Division into the county's electoral practices and history. Though Hispanic citizens constitute about 40 percent of the population of Alamosa County, a Hispanic candidate has not been elected to the three-member Board of Commissioners, or any other county-wide office, since 1984.

Under the current system, each Commissioner is elected from the county at-large. The Justice Department's analysis of county elections dating back many years found that while Hispanic voters in Alamosa County are politically cohesive, white voters, who form a majority of the county's electorate, usually vote as a bloc to defeat the Hispanic community's candidates of choice. This bloc voting coupled with the use of an at-large election system results in a dilution of the voting strength of the Hispanic community in Alamosa County in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Today's lawsuit seeks a change in the method of electing the Board of Commissioners that would afford Alamosa County's Hispanic voters an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.

Complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be called in to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Internet site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting.

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