The city of Irvine will defend its current at-large election process in court, if challenged, according to Irvine City Attorney Jeff Melching.

Melching’s comments are in reference to a letter sent to the Irvine City Council by Attorney Kevin Shenkman, who represents the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a non-partisan Latino voter participation organization. 

In his letter, sent March 5, Shenkman claims Irvine’s at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, due to vote dilution – which is the impairment of minority groups’ ability to elect their preferred candidates or influence the outcome of elections – and demands Irvine adopt district-based elections. 

Shenkman concludes that in the event Irvine does not voluntarily change its elections to district-based elections, the Shenkman & Hughes law firm will be forced to seek “judicial relief.”

In his written response to Shenkman, dated April 23, and obtained by Irvine Weekly, Melching emphasized that Irvine had no interest in adopting district-based elections at this time or in the future, and provided multiple examples countering the argument that district-based elections create a better environment for minority voters. 

Melching also emphasized that the demands pushed by Shenkman are framed similarly to previous attempts to bait cities into costly legal battles. 

“Your letter appears to be the same ‘form’ letter that you have sent to jurisdictions throughout California over the past decade – apart from filling in a few city-specific blanks in the last five paragraphs – which strongly suggests that you have not undertaken a detailed analysis of the city’s demographics or its elections.”

There has yet to be public discussion on this topic, as Shenkman’s original letter was addressed by the council in closed session. Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim, who was recently elected to the City Council in November – after receiving more votes than any Irvine candidate in the city’s history – said she does not see racially polarized voting in Irvine.

“I want to make it very clear that I’m a hardened advocate for the California Voting Rights Act,” Vice Mayor Tammy Kim said in an interview with Irvine Weekly. “However, I am not in favor – and I’m on record even prior to being elected – of districting in the city of Irvine, because there is no California Voting Rights issue to solve that will be remedied through districting.”

Kim is familiar with Shenkman, after hearing Huntington Beach and Glendale received letters threatening legal action over at-large elections. 

“The fact of the matter is, Glendale responded, Huntington Beach responded – and he just didn’t respond back,” Kim added. “Most cities have an issue with the CVRA, the facts are just not in support of particular cities or waterboards – but that is not the case in Irvine.”  

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