Former Councilman Angel Ortiz, Latino advocates speak out on voting rights
Latino advocacy groups are planning protests and petitions against what they call the disenfranchisement of 700,000 Latino Pennsylvanians.
This Wednesday, Pennsylvania's Legislative Reapportionment Commission will meet in an effort to sort out what has become the state's messiest redistricting battle to date. Former Philly City Councilman Angel Ortiz, along with bus-loads of Latino voters from Philly, Allentown and Reading, will be there — in an effort to forestall what they call the potential disenfranchisement of 700,000 Latino Pennsylvanians.
Primaries in Pennsylvania, for races including the Republican Presidential nomination and seats in the state's General Assembly, are set for April 24. So when the state Supreme Court threw out proposed new legislative districts (designed to accommodate population changes documented in the 2010 Census, including 46 percent growth in the Latino community), the court suggested going back to 2001 voting districts for expediency's sake. Ortiz, who pushed hard for more Latino-friendly districts, says that's just not fair. The new redistricting maps, says Ortiz, could have carved out four or more seats for Latino representatives, including two in Philly, one in Reading and one in Allentown. "Because some interests in this state want to maintain their political bases, 700,000 Latino residents will not have representation," he argues.
Ortiz wants to delay the primary to allow time for the drawing if new maps. If it means having multiple primaries — as is happening in New York — so be it: "The voting rights of people take precedence." However, Mayor Nutter and others are pushing to set special elections soon for six currently empty seats, further adding pressure to keep 2001 lines (and, thereby, the April 24 date) in place.
Ortiz described the Latino community's efforts as a decades-long fight for representation, noting that since 1983 they have had only one representative in Harrisburg. Joe Garcia of Latino Lines, which filed a lawsuit to stop the voting maps from reverting, and is planning to bus protesters to Harrisburg , told reporters today: "The Latino community has been robbed. The Reapportionment Commission sent down some maps to the governor that for the first time in more than 30 years we finally had equal representation in this state, and now that has been taken away from us."