ST. LOUIS _ A U.S. District Court judge is calling for a new system of voting in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, one intended to bolster the ability of African-Americans to elect school board members of their choice.
Judge Rodney Sippel _ who struck down the school district's voting methods in August _ calls for a system involving so-called cumulative voting.
Under such an approach, voters cast as many votes as there are candidates, distributing those votes among candidates as they choose. Unlike the current system, a voter could use all votes on a single candidate.
In the ruling, the judge argues the system allows voters to "concentrate their full voting power behind their preferred candidate without requiring voters to give up any of the votes they are entitled to cast."
The new system is to go into effect in time for the board's April election. The ruling requires that voters first be educated on the new system.
During a brief status hearing Tuesday morning, Sippel gave lawyers until next week to come up with a proposal on how to go about educating voters.
Cumulative voting is supported by the ACLU and NAACP, both of which are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the school district's current method of voting. It has also been deemed an acceptable remedy in similar litigation, according the judge's ruling.
As it is, school board candidates run at-large, seeking votes across the school district. Critics have argued that the system has narrowed the possibility of electing minority candidates.
Currently, three of the district's seven board members are African-American. The district has called for keeping the current electoral system, an option Sippel determined was "legally unacceptable on its face" because it does not resolve the violation.
School district lawyer Cindy Ormsby said Monday night that the board has not yet decided whether to appeal.
During the Tuesday hearing, Ormsby told Sippel that a "huge factor" in that decision may be the attorneys' fees and costs. She said that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent already, and the board may have to decide whether risking an appeal to reverse his ruling would be the most "cost effective" route.
Sippel replied that the last thing that he wanted to do was "hurt the district." He also suggested to ACLU lawyer Tony Rothert that the ACLU "measure itself carefully" when seeking costs as the winners in the suit.
Rothert said that he would, and promised that the ACLU would donate some of their fees back to the district.
The current election system could return if demographics in the district change, Sippel said. He said that eliminating cumulative voting could be undone much easier that creating and later revising election districts, and stressed repeatedly that he aimed to minimize harm for voters and the district.
ACLU communications director Daniela Velazquez applauded the ruling, saying it adds to landmark victories in cases such as Brown V. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
About 80 percent of the school district's 11,200 students are black, and 12 percent are white. The population in the district is nearly evenly split between black and white.
