By Maria Loya

In California and throughout the United States, voting rights are being challenged, whether it be Texas’ attempt to criminalize assisting voters to cast their ballots, or Huntington Beach’s attempt to impose voter identification restrictions contrary to State law.

Locally, in Santa Monica, we have our own voting rights struggle, which reached the California Supreme Court in 2023 and prompted U.S. Senator Alex Padilla to write:

“If the city of Santa Monica prevails, the California Voting Rights Act’s protections against discriminatory at-large elections would be drastically weakened. In other words, if the city has its way, California would be set back 20 years.”

Why would a “progressive” city council spend so much to fight against minority voting rights? The answer is as simple as it is basic: power.

As people of color demand change to an unjust system of elections, “progressives” in Santa Monica are just as capable and willing to trample minority voting rights as the MAGA-adherents in Texas and Huntington Beach.

Under current law, as long as the City can keep the case going, with some appeal to some court, it can continue to perpetuate the racist at-large election system to which the current City Councilmembers owe their own electoral successes.

That perverse incentive -- keep paying expensive lawyers to keep power by denying minorities’ their voting rights -- is finally being addressed by the California Legislature.

Assemblymember Anamarie Avila Farias has introduced Assembly Bill 1079, which would generally require cities to abide by court judgments in voting rights cases while any appeals are decided.

That common sense reform will, if signed into law, protect minority voting rights and taxpayer funds alike, as it will eliminate delays in implementing fair and lawful election systems, along with the corresponding costs of prolonging litigation.

But, like all legislation, it seems Assembly Bill 1079 has been watered-down by amendments necessary to secure committee support. The City of Santa Monica successfully lobbied (on the public’s dime) to exclude Santa Monica from Assembly Bill 1079. ("Santa Monica Exempted from Voting Rights Bill," April 30, 2025).

After all, why should Santa Monica be subject to the same law as every other city in California? So, while Santa Monica is the glaring example for why Assembly Bill 1079 is necessary, the minority voters in Santa Monica will not benefit even if that bill is passed.

Instead, the City Council members will continue to proclaim their progressiveness, while simultaneously paying lawyers millions of dollars to fight against voting rights so they can maintain their political power and privilege.

There is a long history of racial injustice against Mexican and Black residents in Santa Monica. The minority-concentrated Pico Neighborhood was created out of restrictive covenants and redlining.

Ever since, the Pico Neighborhood has been neglected and marginalized with industrial zoning, the I-10 Freeway cutting the neighborhood in two, and the dumping of a landfill, hazardous waste facilities and a train maintenance yard.

That is no accident; without representation on the City Council the Pico Neighborhood was an easy target to be the City’s dumping ground, protecting the wealthier and less diverse neighborhoods from these undesirable and toxic elements.

By spending tens of millions of dollars fighting against minority voting rights, the Santa Monica City Council members are continuing this shameful legacy of institutionalized racism.

To those council members, you can’t say you’re “progressive” and at the same time do horribly un-democratic things like spend millions of dollars fighting against minority voting rights essentially joining the current efforts of MAGA Republicans.

Maria Loya is the lead plaintiff in the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) lawsuit against the City.