ABOUT ME
Hi, I'm Elena
DEAR FRIENDS;
​As you may know ( or not), I am a candidate for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Although i am a candidate, I am also pursuing the more important issue of voting rights for Detroit Latin@s.
Since Detroit Public Schools was dissolved, leaving it holding the bag with the debt of the State, the creation of the new, debt free "DPSCD" went to At Large voting, thus disenfranchising the Latin@ community in Detroit.
I have asked for help on this issue because it is very difficult to get elected city wide in Detroit. In fact, none of us ever have. I was elected twice as a district rep, but now as city wide, i lost the last election and am currently running. I am living proof that districts do allow for representation, but city wide excludes us.
PLEASE
Join me.
​I will be sending out a letter asking for you to join me in this fight. The At Large voting system is used to disenfranchise voters, as witnessed by the NAACP and ACLU in their cases against New York and California municipalities that used it to keep Black people from representation. Latinos in California were left out. See Dillard v Crenshaw County, Alabama, where a federal district court found that hundreds of Alabama districts intentionally employed At Large electoral methods to discriminate against Black voters.
Detroit is different, indeed.
​
But why would the Detroit City Council, with the same boundaries move to District voting at the same point DPSCD moved backwards in time to disenfranchise us?
Please stand with us to fight for our voting rights.