Lawsuits under New York’s new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states

BY AYANNA ALEXANDER
Associated Press

FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — A new voting rights law in New York is already having a dramatic effect, with lawsuits in several local communities seeking to reverse decades of minority voter disenfranchisement. The lawsuits help dispel a longstanding narrative that racial voting discrimination happens only in the South or in deeply Republican states. In Long Island’s Nassau County, a handful of Latino residents and a local civil rights organization allege that a redistricting map drawn by the county Legislature dilutes the voting power of Black, Latino and Asian residents. Whites are just 56% of the county’s nearly 1.4 million people but account for nearly 80% of the county governing body.