Franklin County voting rights trial gets delayed past 1-year deadline
Franklin County is getting a reprieve from a looming deadline as a Latino voting rights case heads to a trial.
The attorneys pushing to strengthen Latinos’ voices in commissioner elections were hoping for a trial before April 22 — the one-year anniversary of when the case was filed.
Judge Jackie Shea Brown sided with Franklin County’s attorneys and pushed the hearing into the middle of May.
Three local members of the League of United Latin American Citizens are suing Franklin County under the Washington State Voting Rights Act. The suit claims the commissioner’s district boundaries and at-large elections dilute Latino votes.
The Washington State Voting Rights Act requires any trial on an alleged violation must be held a year after “a complaint” is filed.
The complaint is the form that explains what laws the plaintiff believes were violated. It’s normally part of the paperwork that starts the lawsuit, but it can be changed.
In this case, the attorneys for the UCLA Voting Rights Project initially filed the case in April, and updated it on May 5.
Since the state law doesn’t specify which complaint to use, Shea Brown found the deadline could be set by using either the original or the updated one.
Franklin County is only allowing Francis Floyd, one of the partners of the Seattle firm they have hired, to handle the trial and he isn’t available for most of April, according to court records.
“I certainly understand the nature of the statute and its mandate. This court cannot possibly accommodate that ... in light of the fact that the defendants, just as the plaintiffs, are entitled to prepared counsel.”
A similar lawsuit involving Yakima County was delayed by six weeks past the deadline, according to court records.
She didn’t believe the six-day extension to May 11 would negatively impact the voters who filed the suit.
The Voting Rights Project attorneys demanded a trial after Judge Sam Swanberg allowed the county to take back an apparent agreement.
While attorney Chad Dunn called for the trial, no written request was made until Feb. 25, about two months after the last court hearings were held.