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A tale of two arenas
Whitman College basketball student-athlete takes game to political level
Whitman College basketball student-athlete takes game to political level
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By Leilana McKindra
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
This past season, Ian Warner captained the Whitman College basketball squad. Off the hardwood, though, Warner was busy leading a different sort of charge.
Already accustomed to providing the spark Whitman needed on the court, Warner’s research has fueled debate in the political arena about voting rights in a predominantly Hispanic city in Washington.
It started as a project for a class on race and Latinos in Washington. Warner focused on whether the lack of Latino political representation in Sunnyside, Washington, was a result of using at-large elections to select city council members.
Sunnyside is 73.1 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 census. Warner compared about 4,000 voting records against a Hispanic surname list and noted that Hispanic voters tended to vote for Hispanic candidates; however, only one Hispanic sits on the seven-member city council after elections in 2005.
In the study, which was released in December as part of the college’s annual “State of the State of Washington Latinos: 2006” report, Warner concluded that the at-large election scheme created barriers for more equitable representation of Hispanics in Sunnyside.
He also suggested that the format violated the federal Voting Rights Act. That law prohibits voting practices and procedures that intentionally or unintentionally discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in designated language minority groups, including Hispanics. Violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be proven by demonstrating continued under-representation of the group and showing evidence of racially polarized voting — when one race votes predominantly for a member of the same race.
Warner earned his political science degree (with a minor in Spanish) in May and is planning to attend law school. His research, which became his thesis, has drawn a response not only from local authorities, but from federal officials from the United States Justice Department.
Sunnyside officials argue that the disparity could be explained by other reasons, such as Hispanics’ lack of interest and participation in the political system. But, Warner believes years of participating without seeing results has discouraged Hispanic citizens from becoming involved the process.
“People call it voter apathy,” said Warner, who also analyzed data from other cities and saw similar trends but did not have enough data to be definitive. “When you’re going to the polls and the candidate you want to win never wins, you start to feel a little disconnected from the political process. That’s definitely happening in a lot of cities in eastern Washington.”
According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, the Justice Department learned of the possible voting infractions in Sunnyside after a story was published in the newspaper and has contacted Warner and others about the report. Warner said challenging the current format, though, would require significant resources and more research.
But he has other ideas about how to resolve the problem. “Just changing the way you do elections is a great start, but there needs to be an increased effort to mobilize Latino voters on this side of the state,” he said.
For instance, Warner said, moving to district elections or reformatting the current system could work in concert with increased voter education and mobilization projects in the region to address the disconnection between large segments of the population and the local governments.
“It’s not as if you have large segments of the Latino population who are politically active at this point, since they are so disconnected from their city councils,” Warner said. “But with this report, there’s been a definite rise in the level of awareness about the problem. The ensuing conversation, I hope, will increase people’s drive to change the issues the report raises in terms of the importance of minority representation.”
In fact, conversation has translated into the action. Sunnyside officials formed a committee to begin addressing some of the concerns in the study and recently voted unanimously to establish three at-large Council districts in time for an upcoming election. As part of that motion, the city council also voted to take the steps necessary to increase voter registration and involvement in municipal elections by all segments of the community.
Warner said the change is exactly what he and others involved in the project were hoping to see after the research was published. “It’s pretty exciting,” he said.
Warner is currently interning in Costa Rica and, later this fall, will begin an internship with the Washington, D.C., public defenders office.
Already accustomed to providing the spark Whitman needed on the court, Warner’s research has fueled debate in the political arena about voting rights in a predominantly Hispanic city in Washington.
It started as a project for a class on race and Latinos in Washington. Warner focused on whether the lack of Latino political representation in Sunnyside, Washington, was a result of using at-large elections to select city council members.
Sunnyside is 73.1 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 census. Warner compared about 4,000 voting records against a Hispanic surname list and noted that Hispanic voters tended to vote for Hispanic candidates; however, only one Hispanic sits on the seven-member city council after elections in 2005.
In the study, which was released in December as part of the college’s annual “State of the State of Washington Latinos: 2006” report, Warner concluded that the at-large election scheme created barriers for more equitable representation of Hispanics in Sunnyside.
He also suggested that the format violated the federal Voting Rights Act. That law prohibits voting practices and procedures that intentionally or unintentionally discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in designated language minority groups, including Hispanics. Violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be proven by demonstrating continued under-representation of the group and showing evidence of racially polarized voting — when one race votes predominantly for a member of the same race.
Warner earned his political science degree (with a minor in Spanish) in May and is planning to attend law school. His research, which became his thesis, has drawn a response not only from local authorities, but from federal officials from the United States Justice Department.
Sunnyside officials argue that the disparity could be explained by other reasons, such as Hispanics’ lack of interest and participation in the political system. But, Warner believes years of participating without seeing results has discouraged Hispanic citizens from becoming involved the process.
“People call it voter apathy,” said Warner, who also analyzed data from other cities and saw similar trends but did not have enough data to be definitive. “When you’re going to the polls and the candidate you want to win never wins, you start to feel a little disconnected from the political process. That’s definitely happening in a lot of cities in eastern Washington.”
According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, the Justice Department learned of the possible voting infractions in Sunnyside after a story was published in the newspaper and has contacted Warner and others about the report. Warner said challenging the current format, though, would require significant resources and more research.
But he has other ideas about how to resolve the problem. “Just changing the way you do elections is a great start, but there needs to be an increased effort to mobilize Latino voters on this side of the state,” he said.
For instance, Warner said, moving to district elections or reformatting the current system could work in concert with increased voter education and mobilization projects in the region to address the disconnection between large segments of the population and the local governments.
“It’s not as if you have large segments of the Latino population who are politically active at this point, since they are so disconnected from their city councils,” Warner said. “But with this report, there’s been a definite rise in the level of awareness about the problem. The ensuing conversation, I hope, will increase people’s drive to change the issues the report raises in terms of the importance of minority representation.”
In fact, conversation has translated into the action. Sunnyside officials formed a committee to begin addressing some of the concerns in the study and recently voted unanimously to establish three at-large Council districts in time for an upcoming election. As part of that motion, the city council also voted to take the steps necessary to increase voter registration and involvement in municipal elections by all segments of the community.
Warner said the change is exactly what he and others involved in the project were hoping to see after the research was published. “It’s pretty exciting,” he said.
Warner is currently interning in Costa Rica and, later this fall, will begin an internship with the Washington, D.C., public defenders office.
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