220225 FM Sonni Waknin TranscriptFrom:Frances Marquez
To:Alisha Farnell
Cc:Fred Galante; Peter Grant
Subject:Fwd: Sonni Waknin Transcript
Date:Wednesday, April 6, 2022 4:21:03 PM
Attachments:City of Cypress .docx
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rojas, Kelly <kellyrojas0405@csu.fullerton.edu>
Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 10:51 PM
Subject: Sonni Waknin Transcript
To: Frances Marquez <Marquezfrances13@gmail.com>
Dear Councilwoman Marquez,
I have attached the completed transcript of Sonni Waknin's oral communication from
November 22, 2021.
Thank you,
Kelly Rojas
Transcript
Transcript of Sunny Walkmen’s oral communication for the City of Cypress’ regular city
council meeting on November 22, 2021.
“Hi, um, my name is Sonni Waknin. I’m from the UCLA Voting Rights Project, um I
currently live in Los Angeles. Um, I’m here on behalf of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, we’re
a nonpartisan academic research center at UCLA, focused on ensuring that everyone has the
ability to cast a ballot, and have that ballot weighed equally. I’m here to talk about the California
Voting Rights Act. I know that you were all sent a letter by uh Mr.Shankman, um about
compliance with the California Voting Rights Act, or I’ll call it the CVRA. I want to preface this,
we’re talking about the 2020 census growth in Cypress. It’s clear from the 2020 census that the
Latino and Asian population growth fueled Cypress’ continued growth. The Asian population
today based on the census has grown by about four thousand residents and the Latino population
has grown by about two thousand residents. Um, the White, non-Hispanic population on the
other hand has declined by about forty-five hundred residents in Cypress. And as of today the
Asian population consists of-is thirty-seven percent of Cypress and the Latino population is now
thirty-three percent of the city’s total population. The California Voting Rights Act, as I’m sure
you know, prohibits the use of at-large methods of election if the application impairs the ability
of racial or ethnic minorities to elect candidates of choice. Um, a candidate of choice is a
candidate that most of the protected class population vote for, or coalesces around, um and a
candidate of choice does not need to be the same race of the protected class whose votes are
being diluted. And the type of evidence that will be presented, um in a potential CVRA lawsuit
include demonstrating that Latinos and Asian Americans vote for different candidates or have
different electoral choices than non-Latinos and Asian Americans. So for example, in the 2020
Congressional election in which Cypress voters voted in, in three of the highest density White
precincts in Cypress candidate Briscoe won about fifty-two percent of the vote and in three of the
lowest density White precincts Briscoe only received forty-one percent of the vote, and that is
indicative of racially polarized voting. So that’s the type of evidence that a potential suer or a
plaintiff would provide against you. Um. Now that Cypress has received notice under the CVRA,
you will either have to adopt a districting scheme that respects Asian and Latino voting power in
the-in the-and is uh equitable or be subject to a CVRA lawsuit. The UCLA Voting Rights
Project, as I said, is an academic research project. Um we’re based in the Luskin School of
Public Affairs at UCLA, and we’re here to assist cities, such as Cypress with redistricting and
can provide assistance to the city if you decide to make a plan to switch with help with mapping
and understanding the demographic changes in your city. Um, so we urge the city to take the
CVRA very seriously, to take the notice letter very seriously, and to offer um and provide
assistance if you do decide to go to districts and how to do so in a fair manner. Thank you.”