"Strange" election gives residents in Hispanic community 6 votes

"What happened to - one man, one vote?"

A friend mentioned this story of a New York City suburb that gave residents six votes in a Port Chester election. Odd, but apparently true.

Yes, voters could give all six votes to one candidate. And that’s exactly what some did.

Resident Arthur Furano flipped the lever six times for his favorite candidate, according to the Associated Press.

It’s the first election for village trustees since since 2006, when the federal government alleged the existing election system discriminated against Hispanics. No Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats despite the village being nearly half Latino.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson said that violated the Voting Rights Act, and he approved a remedy suggested by village officials: a system called cumulative voting, in which residents get six votes each to apportion as they wish among the candidates, according to the Associated Press.

Even Furano admitted it was strange.

"I'm not sure I liked it,” he said. “All my life, I've heard, 'one man, one vote.'"

California could gain 9 House seats because of illegal immigrants

North Carolina could lose a seat if illegal immigrants are not counted. Is all this right?

Critics of the Census’s practice not to ask about residency status say “no.”

John Baker, a constitutional law professor at Louisiana State University, and Elliott Stonecipher, a Louisiana pollster and demographic analyst, charge that the census has drifted from its constitutional roots and that the 2010 Census count will result in a unfair redistribution of Congress.

Since 1790(except following the census of 1920), the Census has been used to determine the apportionment of members of the U.S. House of Representatives among the states.

Baker and Stonecipher write in a recent Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal that California could get nine House seats “it doesn’t deserve” because illegal immigrants will be counted in the 2010 Census.

They charge that several states, such as Iowa, Louisiana, and Michigan, will likely lose one seat in the 2010 reapportionment because of this.

For a story on illegal immigrants threatening to boycott the Census, we reported in May that North Carolina could lose its coveted 14th seat in the House of Representatives.

North Carolina and Utah battled after the 2000 Census when in 2002 after North Carolina won the last available U.S. House district seat over Utah. Critics said North Carolina won the seat because of the state’s growing illegal immigrant population.

Nine states in all, including South Carolina, could gain a seat based on population gains, according to a recent study by Election Data Services, a political consulting firm.

Photo: The threatened boycott of the upcoming Census by illegal immigrants is a frequent topic for Charlotte radio host Jorge Medina. T.ORTEGA GAINES – ogaines@charlotteobserver.com