Yuba agencies seek elections waiver
Yuba County still has to get federal approval for changes to voting procedures, but a handful of agencies and districts within the county are making a bid to get out of doing so.
Because of a regulatory change by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Olivehurst Public Utility District, Browns Valley Irrigation District and others are working with an attorney in Washington, D.C., to get their preclearance requirements waived.
OPUD General Manager Tim Shaw said the ability for small agencies to do so stems from a 2009 Supreme Court decision over preclearance and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Decades ago, Yuba County became a preclearance county under the act when a discrepancy was discovered between who was registered to vote in the county and its population, which federal officials suggested possible racial disenfranchisement. County officials said the discrepancy came because people stationed at Beale Air Force Base lived here but were still registered to vote elsewhere.
Both Shaw and BVID General Manager Walt Cotter said they weren't aware of any actual racial discrimination relative to voting within their respective agencies, but they've still had to comply with preclearance anytime they've annexed new property, for example.
"It's a big paper chase, and it seems to be much ado about nothing," Cotter said, because the federal government rarely finds to reason under the preclearance process to block voting in annexed areas.
But for public agencies with relatively small budgets, the main difficulty with preclearance is expense. Shaw said going through the process can cost $10,000 to $15,000 the first time, and as much as $2,500 in future instances, largely in legal fees.
"It's not free, and it's not instant," he said. "It's just unnecessarily expensive."
After the 2009 court decision over a water district in Texas — a state with a preclearance obligation — federal regulators began establishing a process where agencies within preclearance jurisdictions could "bail out."
Shaw and Cotter said doing so involves sending a large amount of paperwork to the federal government, but it's worth some trouble now to save money and time later on.
In addition to BVID and OPUD, the Yuba County Water Agency and North Yuba Water District have also begun the federal process to bail out of preclearance requirements.
But even if they're successful, and Shaw said he's not sure how long the approval process will take, Yuba County itself may be under preclearance for some time to come.
Opting out at the county level, Shaw said, would require extensive documentation of a clear record on racial disenfranchisement from not only the Clerk-Recorder's Office, but the offices of every public agency with elected boards within the county.
