Castaic Union School District board members voted Thursday to use cumulative voting in their next election. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox. “We believe that we’re currently in compliance with the (California Voting Right Act), but because of the past schools’ litigation the best way to move forward is with cumulative voting,” said ...

Updates with quote from city attorney A superior court judge again upheld the legality of cumulative voting, which was questioned in a statement by city of Santa Clarita attorneys. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox. The move led to speculation in open court Monday that a new lawsuit challenging the legality of cumulative voting ...

Hart district officials released maps for what the junior high and high school district might look like in future elections, if they abandon at-large votes in favor of trustee areas. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox. District maps were drawn by a firm selected by attorneys for the William S. Hart Union High School District, ...

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge upheld cumulative voting as a remedy for a lawsuit against Santa Clarita claiming the city violated the California Voting Rights Act, officials said Monday. The suit claimed the city was in violation of the CVRA with its at-large elections that disenfranchised minority voters. After a settlement conference, the city and Shenkman & Hughes, the firm representing the plaintiffs, eventually came to terms.

California Supreme Court justices will not review an appellate panel's decision finding Palmdale's at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act, an attorney for the plaintiff said Wednesday.

Despite Santa Clarita Valley governing boards’ approval of election changes in response to California Voting Rights Act concerns, an outdated county system won’t be able to handle the changes for at least another four years, officials said. “Our current voting system both the devices we use at the polls and, more importantly, the tabulations system we use... can not run a cumulative voting system,” said Efrain Escobedo, governmental and legislative affairs manager for the Los Angeles County’s Registrar-Recorder’s Office. “It’s just the limitations of the technology,” he said, referring to a voting system created in the late 1960s.

Hart district officials changed their elections with a 4-1 vote Wednesday, following a discussion at the Santa Clarita Valley high school district’s governing board meeting. The change wasn’t a popular choice among board members, but it provided them with a “safe harbor” from a potential lawsuit, said Hart district governing board President Steve Sturgeon. “All five board members basically testified last night that we should be able to vote at large -- it gives an opportunity for the entire population to choose who their representatives are,” Sturgeon said. “So this becomes a little more exclusive to an area, which was the intent, and we’ll see how it works.”

Santa Clarita officials questioned the legality of their own settlement in a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit in a briefing filed this week. The filing is a result of Santa Clarita officials’ uncertainty over whether their agreed-upon settlement is legal and feasible, said Joe Montes, Santa Clarita city attorney. “If cumulative voting is not permitted and we’re not allowed to change the election date, then the parties will have to confer again as to how the matter will proceed,” Montes said. “It could mean that the litigation resumes, it could mean settlement talks could have to resume -- that’s just too far off to speculate at this point.”

Newhall School District governing board members directed Superintendent Marc Winger to “investigate the process of initiating a change to cumulative voting and even-year elections in order to address potential concerns under the California Voting Rights Act,” an official said Tuesday. The election change was approved at the governing board’s meeting in response to the district’s monitoring of recent CVRA lawsuits in the area, according to district officials. The Newhall School District will change its elections “assuming recent settlement agreements initiating the transition to cumulative voting and even year elections are held to be legally valid,” according to officials.

Hart district officials announced their intent to look at district-based elections for the junior high and high school district’s governing board Wednesday. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox. The report out of a closed-door session announced the William S. Hart Union High School District would take steps toward the adoption of ...