OLYMPIA – A proposal to allow Washington cities to rearrange voting districts so minorities could have a greater voice in elections was praised Thursday as a way to avoid costly federal lawsuits and denounced as a Trojan horse for more litigation.

The proposed state Voting Rights Act, which passed the House on a partisan vote during the regular session but stalled in the Senate despite bipartisan support, got an airing in a joint Senate committee work session. It’s unlikely to be revived for the special session, which is concentrating on budgets, but that didn’t keep tempers from occasionally flaring as legal experts disagreed on its effectiveness.

The city of Yakima has been ordered by a federal court to revise its council election system to allow better representation by a growing Hispanic population. Such costly litigation could be avoided under the proposal because city officials and a group challenging they electoral system would have more opportunities to negotiate a change, Shankar Narayan, of the ACLU which joined the suit against Yakima, said.

“Our entire purpose is to avoid litigation,” Narayan said. “If your claim is frivolous it will not succeed. It allows jurisdictions to adopt solutions.”

John Safarli, a lawyer from the firm that represented Yakima in the suit, said the bill goes too far by “creating a brand new cause of action” in state courts when federal law already protects minority rights. Giving cities and other local government jurisdictions the authority to change voluntarily is a good idea and the bill should stop there, adding a provision is unfair that makes sitting officials resign if they have more than two years on their term when the districts are redrawn, he added.

Elected officials have to run for re-election all the time, Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, countered. “I don’t think anyone should think they own a seat.”

Hans von Spakovsky, an election official with the George W. Bush administration who now works for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said some terms in the bill a vague, like “reasonably equal” districts.

“What’s reasonable? It sets you up for endless rounds of litigation,” von Spakovsky said.

But Sen. Cyrus Habib, D-Seattle, challenged Spakovsky’s concerns about more litigation, saying a group had to do more than challenge the current system: “You have to provide a remedy.”

Senate Law and Justice Committee Chairman Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said he wasn’t sure if the bill would get a chance for a vote in the special session but could be revived next year. Changing the way cities and other political districts elect officials currently is difficult, Padden said, and the city of Spokane tried several proposals before voters settled on its current district council system.

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