Hispanics seek change in Mount Pleasant at-large voting system under new state law
In the first test of New York's 2022 voting rights act, Mount Pleasant residents on Tuesday filed suit in state Supreme Court, seeking a voting system for town offices that would give its growing Hispanic population a chance to elect its favored candidates.
To replace the current at-large system, with candidates elected townwide, the plaintiffs have suggested a ward system or ranked-choice voting.
The filing comes seven weeks after an acrimonious public hearing at Mount Pleasant Town Hall during which an incoming town board member told Hispanic activists from the town’s village of Sleepy Hollow that they should form their own town if they want to ensure representation.
“At public hearings to consider a districting plan, certain residents in attendance could hardly contain their disdain for the Hispanic community,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Act, signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, a protected racial group, such as Hispanics, can petition a municipality to change its election system if it can show that the town has what’s called polarized voting. That’s when the system impairs a protected group from electing candidates of their choice, or they have their votes diluted by an at-large system.
Among the plaintiffs is Sergio Serratto, who lives in Mount Pleasant’s village of Pleasantville.
“The goal is not to elect an Hispanic, the goal is to have the right to elect someone who represents them," said Serratto. "Maybe it's not an Hispanic. The canddiate could be white or African American. Let them have the right to have elect somebody from Sleepy Hollow."
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Lawsuit alleges racial discrimination
Mount Pleasant is a town in central Westchester with nearly 45,000 residents that’s 69% white, 19% Hispanic, 5% black and 4% Asian. The town includes the villages of Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, and a portion of Briarcliff Manor. About half of Sleepy Hollow’s residents are Hispanic.
The five-person Town Board has three men and two women. All are white. All ran on the Republican and Conservative lines in a town where enrolled Democrats outnumber Republicans and Conservatives by 40% to 28%, with 27% of voters enrolled in no party, and 5% in minor parties.
The lawsuit was filed in a municipality with a long history of discrimination against the Hispanic community, the lawsuit alleged. It cites Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi’s declaration of a state of emergency in Mount Pleasant in May, when fears abounded that Hispanic migrants and asylum seekers from New York might be housed in the town.
The order prohibited any building owner from providing housing to an asylum seeker without a license granted from the town, with violators subject to criminal penalties.
Town Attorney Darius Chafizadeh said there's no evidence of racial discrimination in Mount Pleasant. He said the migrant issue is unrelated to the town's voting system.
Chafizadeh said he had sent a letter on Dec. 13 to the plaintiffs' attorneys, asking them to come up with a proposal to address their concerns. By Tuesday they had yet to respond.
“As you are aware, the town requested on Dec. 13, 2023 that the plaintiffs’ counsel provide specific proposals to address their concerns," Chafizadeh told Tax Watch. "As you are aware, there was no response."
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County Legislator David Imamura, D-Irvington, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said that it’s up to the town to come up with a plan. His legislative district does not include Mount Pleasant.
“It falls on the town to do it,” said Imamura. “When a town councilman says Sleepy Hollow should leave the town, that doesn’t sound like the town would be open to negotiations.”
A call for Sleepy Hollow to leave town
During public hearings last fall, several speakers urged the Town Board to fight any challenge to the at-large electoral system, with some opponents making “racially charged comments,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit notes that Mark Saracino, who won election to the Town Board in November, encouraged the plaintiffs to leave Mount Pleasant and form their own municipality.
It wouldn't be the first time that's happened in Westchester. In 1978, Mount Kisco seceded from the towns of Bedford and New Castle to create its own town/village. The village of Peekskill left the town of Cortlandt in 1940 to create the city of Peekskill.
Saracino noted that Sleepy Hollow residents receive very few services from the town, with public works, police services, local court, and land use issues handled by the village government.
“If you want to be a pioneer and you want to make a big difference, have you not even considered that Sleepy Hollow should become the town of Sleepy Hollow?” he asked. “They might crucify me for saying this . . . but that’s a thought to say maybe we don’t have to sue, don’t have to have a judge tell us where we should be or how we should vote.”
The lawsuit was filed seven months after the plaintiffs gave notice to the town of a potential violation of the law, which was enacted in 2022.
The town then hired two noted voting rights experts to investigate the claims. Both Jeffrey Wice and Lisa Handley concluded in early November that Hispanic voters and non-Hispanic white voters consistently supported different candidates for town office, and the candidates supported by the white voters almost always win.
Wice advised the town to develop a plan to remedy the disparity.
Now it will be up to the state Supreme to decide if the state's Voting Rights Act requires such action.
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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Pleasant NY Hispanics sue over at-large town electoral system
