Tuesday, November 10th a panel of appeals court judges ruled in a 2 – 1 split that Tucson's election system is unconstitutional, at the same time the recent consolidated election canvass was being approved the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
The panel reversed the district court’s judgement in favor of the City of Tucson in an action challenging the hybrid system for electing members of its city council filed by Public Integrity Alliance's attorney Kory Langhofer.
Tucson is divided into six wards of approximately equal population, and each ward is allotted one seat on the city council. Under the first step of the hybrid system each ward holds its own primary limited to residents of that ward. The winners of the ward primaries advance to the general election, where they compete against the other candidates nominated from that ward. In the general election, all Tucson residents can vote for one council member from each ward that held a primary during the same election cycle.
Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Cicuit writing in the majority opinion, said the current system favors Democrats and violates the 14th Amendment's one-man, one-vote provision.
"Tucson generally votes Democratic," Kozinski wrote. "This means that the Democratic nominee from each ward will likely win the general election regardless of whether the ward from which he was nominated is principally Republican or Democratic. Indeed, the city’s current mayor and all six council members are Democrats."
He said all City Council members represent the entire city and not only their wards, and thus the election system must be consistent from primary to general balloting.
"We cannot endorse an election system that encourages at-large representatives to prioritize kissing babies and currying favor in their home wards over the interests of their constituents who happen to live in other parts of the city," the ruling said.
The practical effect of the majority’s decision today is the total eradication of Tucson’s voting system, which has been in place since 1930. Tucson is now forced to choose between an entirely at-large method of election or a ward-only method of election despite the fact that a majority of Tucson citizens have twice before voted against adopting these election systems.
To read the full ruling click here: PIA v City Of Tucson