[KHTS] – Los Angeles County officials are planning to deny a request by College of the Canyons to consolidate elections and use cumulative voting next November, officials said.

A decision is expected to be made Tuesday, when the board will formally take up the item and vote.

The move was requested by college officials as part of a settlement over an alleged California Voting Rights Act lawsuit settlement.

COC officials and the plaintiffs in a California Voting Rights Act lawsuit reached confidential settlement terms in June.

The settlement by COC officials avoided a trial by the narrowest of margins, after an 11th hour meeting by the board authorized legal counsel to seek a settlement the day before trial was to begin.

The terms are spelled out to include the changes sought by College of the Canyons, but the next step for college officials is not clear after the pending denial — whether the college will have to hold concurrent elections (at the same time as the county, but using its own ballots) or change the method altogether.)

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A COC official was not immediately to respond with a comment on this story.
“The judgment says that they will have elections coinciding with the statewide general,” said Kevin Shenkman, an attorney for Shenkman & Hughes, which is representing the plaintiffs, “and that they will have cumulative voting, period.”
The statement from Dean Logan, county registrar, which accompanies the recommended denial, states the county “does not have the authority” to offer one method of election for one district and another method for a different district on the same consolidated ballot.
The county’s recommendation for a denial flies in the face of the Superior Court’s ruling on the validity of cumulative voting, which was part of a Shenkman & Hughes lawsuit against the city of Santa Clarita, he said. He also questioned the legality of a county policy
“Logan is ignoring what the Los Angeles Superior Court has already ruled,” Shenkman said, “that cumulative voting is legal.”