Course Overview

The goal of this course is for students to learn about the history and present issues concerning racial minorities and voting rights in the U.S., with a special focus on Latinos. The major assignment in the course is for each student, working individually, to carry out a "voting rights assessment" and produce a plan for voting rights improvement for a specific jurisdiction in Washington State. The basic questions motivating these studies will be: How fairly are Latinos represented in the jurisdiction in question? What factors (legal-structural, social-economic, and political-organizational) account for any Latino under-representation that exists? What kinds of action should be taken to enhance representative democracy and racial equality in these jurisdictions? Students will conduct some public educational activities regarding their research results in the latter part of the semester. They will also do their project work in consultation with a non-partisan, nonprofit civic organization.

Two Areas of Focus

1. Voting rights: Do circumstances in this jurisdiction provide grounds for applying Section 2 Voting Rights Act remedies for Latino under-representation? What would change here, if VRA provisions were applied, or were applied more vigorously? What would not change? What factors, aside from voter mobilization efforts, explain Latino representation and turnout levels, racially polarized voting, any lack of district elections, and any difficulties in obtaining bilingual voting materials, in this location?
2. Political mobilization: What efforts are being made by organizations in this area to mobilize greater Latino participation in local politics and public affairs? What have organizations specifically done to mobilize greater Latino voter participation? What have these organizations achieved, and what have they not achieved? Why have these organizations been active, and why have they been able or unable to accomplish certain changes, apart from considerations addressed by the VRA (availability of bilingual voting materials, patterns of racially polarized voting, at-large vs. district elections)?

Engaging Communities

In addition to producing high quality original research research reports, students will develop presentations for community groups in Washington State. The research reports as well as feature summaries, and executive summaries will be available online. Students will also seek out opportunities to work with news media to tell the story of Latino Voting Rights Issues in Washington.