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Outcome. >> port chester is home to a growing hispanic population. but until this year, no hispanic had ever been elected to the board of trustees and only two had ever been on the ballot. the town's mayor offers a reason for the discrepancy. >> most of those people, however, are not united states citizens yet. come here as immigrants most of them. the census estimates that 22% of that group are eligible to vote. >> despite the fact the justice department filed a lawsuit against port chester in 2006 for violating section objection two of the voting rights act. they were acting on a complaint b...

Discriminatory voting practices but does it have unin tenned consequences? >> it appears that the justice department has been using the voter righting act differently than its writers intended. this is port chester, new york. a small community making national headlines because of its unusual local election. if you are a registered voter here you get six votes when it comes to electing the six member board of trustees. you can vote six times for one candidate or split up votes among different individuals. this is the result of a long battle in court when the justice department came in and said ...

Minority candidates to say the only way you will get minority representation is if you cast all your votes for one candidate. >> this isn't the first instance. >> in north carolina, the majority african american, the majority of the city including african americans voted to change the election rules gorgeous to at large voting. what happened, the justice department said we know best. >> we hit the streets of port chester to find out what the local residents think about the new election laws. >> the village did a good job of informing everybody but i didn't feel it was necessary. >> i thought i...

Fit. here is an example of how this works. with six votes, a resident could vote once for six different candidates. three times for two candidates. or vote six times for just one candidate. this method was used for the first time on june 15th to elect port chester's six board of trustees but the compromise was costly. the town spent almost $300,000 educating residents on the new voting procedures and despite efforts to target hispanics, voter turnout was only marginally impacted. >> it is money that is spent that i would rather have seen spent on streets and sidewalks and things that impact da...

That i can go out and get people to vote for me six times to actually stand a chance of winning in this election. >> cumulative voting has long been a controversial subject in the world of politics. in 1993 bill clinton nominated an assistant attorney general for civil rights but was forced to withdraw the nomination after controversial surfaced.ngs suspects more troubling are critics claims that port chester is an example of the justice department abusing its pound for the candy. the federal government moving in and stil telling they what to do. they are saying we don't care what the reason...