Want more representation on the council? Then vote!

I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no sympathy with Hispanic activists demanding another seat on the Dallas City Council when the Hispanic community doesn’t participate in the electoral process. For whatever reason, Hispanics don’t vote proportionately to their population. Some say much of the Hispanic population in the city is too young, below the voting age. That could be true. Others say much of the population is illegal and can’t vote. That could be true also. I would also argue that recent Republican efforts to depress voting by minorities — namely the requirement to show photo identification — will accomplish exactly what these racists want.

But representation should be based on voting strength. In its latest redistricting effort, the City Council created one district with a 75 percent Hispanic population. The activists claim a Hispanic can’t win in this district and they are probably right. But that’s not the fault of those drawing the map. I can’t see the Justice Department agreeing with the argument that a district that is 75 percent Hispanic is a non-Hispanic district.

Instead of wearing ridiculous T-shirts and protesting at City Hall, former city councilman and head activist Domingo Garcia should be initiating voter education programs and registration drives among his constituency. Initiate grassroots get-out-the-vote campaigns. Recruit talented Hispanic leaders such as Domingo’s wife and Delia Jasso, place them before this now-educated and voter-savvy constituency and keep getting them elected.

The recently redistricted city council map contains four districts with a majority Hispanic population: District 1 with 74.19%; District 2 with 56.1%; District 5 with 65.57%; and District 6 with 64.55%. African-Americans have only three districts in which they are a population majority and one of them is by the slimmest of margins: District 4 with 59.36%; District 7 with 50.76%; and District 8 with 60.57%. Yet, according to all the "experts," African-Americans are guaranteed four seats on the City Council. Why? Because African-Americans know they will send enough voters to the polls to win a seat (District 3) in which they comprise 45.19% of the population. Yet Hispanics claim they can’t win District 1. That’s their fault, not the demographers’.

But now the Hispanic activists are yelling for five council seats, something even Garcia, who was on the redistricting committee, couldn’t figure out how to accomplish and remain with the voting population guidelines for each district. The Hispanic population is too geographically dispersed to create a fifth district and have that district pass Justice Department muster. In four other districts in which they are not a majority — districts 3, 4, 7, and 9 — Hispanics comprise at least a third of the population and I’m betting those numbers will increase.

The seats are out there for the taking. But the way democracy works is quite simple: the one with the most votes wins.