South Dakota: Indians sue over failure to redistrict
AP reports: The American Civil Liberties Union is helping four people sue Charles Mix County, claiming the county unfairly dilutes the American Indian vote.
County commission members said they would consider responding on Tuesday.
The ACLU filed the federal lawsuit in Sioux Falls on behalf of four Indian voters. It says the way voting districts are drawn dilutes Indian voters in the southern portion of the county and hurts their chances of affecting elections proportional to their numbers. ...
The plaintiffs said the 2000 census indicates an ideal county commission district in Charles Mix County would contain 3,117 people. They say District 1 has 326 people too many, a deviation of almost 10.5 percent; District 2 is 60 people low, or about 2 percent; and District 3 is low by 267 people, or 8.7 percent. ...
[County Auditor Norm] Cihak said creating an Indian-dominated district would violate a tenet of state law that says voting districts should be as "regular and compact in form as possible." -- AP Wire | 01/29/2005 | Indian voters sue Charles Mix County