Latino, Asian Power Under California Voting Rights Act Expanded

California voting rights law requires cities and districts to safeguard the rights of all voters by not requiring minority groups to prove that they that they would constitute a majority in a hypothetical single-member voting district, a unanimous state supreme court ruled Thursday.

Instead, a minority group need only show “that, under some lawful alternative electoral system, the protected class would have the potential, on its own or with the help of crossover voters, to elect its preferred candidate,” the opinion by Justice Kelli M. Evans said for the court.

The issue before the court is whether Santa Monica’s voter-approved ...