Huntington Beach ranked choice voting tentatively forced by court after lawsuit against the city’s conservative at-large system.
Huntington Beach’s grip as Orange County’s conservative stronghold is under threat from a new court ruling. But this isn’t the first time the attorney and one of the plaintiffs have led the charge to reshape a conservative city.
In late June, Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin tentatively ruled that the city must switch to ranked-choice voting, undoing the “at-large” system in which voters in Huntington Beach have always cast ballots. The decision came after a lawsuit brought by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) and local Huntington Beach resident Victor Valladares. Attorney Kevin Shenkman argued that the current system makes it harder for Latino voters to elect candidates of their choice.
Under Huntington Beach’s longtime at-large system, every voter gets to weigh in on all open council seats, and the top vote-getters win no matter where they live in the city.
Ranked-choice voting flips that script. Voters rank candidates by preference. If nobody clears a majority on first choices, the last-place finisher gets dropped and votes get redistributed until someone does, all while preserving the citywide at-large setup the charter demands. (RELATED: “Patriotic” Chaos in Newport Beach Leads to Over 400 People Arrested)
But Shenkman and SVREP’s lawsuits alleging violations of the California Voting Rights Act, a 2001 state law designed to make it easier for minorities to challenge at-large elections they say dilute their voting power, are nothing new in the state.
In the Golden state, these shifts from at-large to district or ranked-choice voting often end up favoring Democrats as it has held a Democrat supermajority for over 15 years. Due to the system, targeted districts are created where growing Latino and other minority populations, who have leaned Democratic, can more easily elect preferred candidates.
THE LORE BEHIND THE ATTORNEY
Shenkman, who runs Shenkman & Hughes PC with his wife, has become one of the most active lawyers wielding the CVRA to challenge at-large election systems across California.
The Malibu attorney was born and raised in Detroit. He earned his undergraduate degree from Rice University and his law degree from Columbia University. After law school, he moved to Los Angeles and worked at major firms including Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Morrison & Foerster, and Hennigan Bennett & Dorman.
In 2011, Shenkman started his own firm. That same year, he reportedly received a call from then-chairman of the California Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, Darren Parker. Parker asked Shenkman about using the CVRA to challenge at-large systems, thus launching the Malibu attorney into a career now known for it.
Since then, Shenkman has sent hundreds of demand letters to cities, school districts and special districts, threatening CVRA lawsuits unless they switch from at-large to district-based or alternative elections. He has been involved in dozens of lawsuits and settlements throughout California.
Notably, repeated targets involving Shenkman have included conservative-leaning areas such as San Juan Capistrano, Cypress, Palmdale, Rancho Cucamonga and Highland.
However, Shenkman isn’t a lone wolf in using the CVRA against conservative areas. While he’s the go-to litigator, the attorney is often representing the SVREP, making the duo’s technique something of a specialty across California.
A NON-PROFIT SHAPING ELECTIONS
Founded in 1974 in San Antonio, Texas, the SVREP was created by Chicano movement activist William C. “Willie” Velásquez. Notably, Velásquez had ties with now disgraced César Chávez, leaving graduate school to organize the United Farm Workers.
The organization emerged from earlier voter efforts known as the Citizens’ Voter Research and Education Project, positioning itself as a nonpartisan group which focuses on “empowering Latinos and other minorities” through registration, education, leadership training, get-out-the-vote efforts and voting rights litigation.
The group later expanded to multiple Southwestern states, claiming credit for registering millions of Latinos, training over 150,000 leaders and winning hundreds of voting rights lawsuits, often with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Moving into other Southwest states, the SVREP has a strong presence within California, holding an office in the state. That California footprint is where SVREP’s work gets pointed.
Around 2016 the group began teaming up with Shenkman as its primary outside counsel, forming a potent duo on CVRA cases. Throughout the cases, Shenkman sends the letters and litigates, while SVREP supplies the organizational muscle and plaintiff standing.
Some of their large cases targeting conservative areas include San Juan Capistrano, which around 2017-2018 settled with $293,000 in fees to the plaintiffs’ side and forced the city to switch from at-large voting to district elections.
In Highland, Shenkman and SVREP won their case against the city around 2015–2016, with the plaintiffs not only reportedly recovering approximately $1.3 million but forcing the city to switch its at-large voting to district-based elections.
Rancho Cucamonga had the same outcome of switching from at-large voting to districts around 2016–2017, with the plaintiffs reportedly recovering an estimated $1.37 million in fees.
Additionally, in Cypress, Shenkman had sent a demand letter on behalf of SVREP, filing a lawsuit arguing that the system diluted the voting power of Asian Americans in the area. The city eventually settled in 2024, agreeing to move to district elections and paying the plaintiffs $835,000.
These cases throughout the state don’t come cheap for taxpayers though, as they help fuel SVREP’s operations.
THE MONEY
While Shenkman racks up large fee awards and settlements, the SVREP runs on a steady stream of grants from progressive and Democratic-aligned sources that keep the machine humming across California.
SVREP operates with a relatively modest annual budget, bringing in around $700,000 in recent years. But it’s overwhelmingly funded by contributions and grants.
According to the organization’s reports, there is almost no program service revenue, with nearly everything coming from donors and foundations. That money then pays for registration drives, leadership training, litigation support and the staff that backs Shenkman’s cases.
Key funders include the California Community Foundation, with hundreds of thousands flowing in recent years — one record summary, for example, showed a $281,000 funding from the group. Along with the CCF, AltaMed Health Services, an LA-based health equity organization, often grants in the six figures, including $175,000 in a recent year. Other environmental players include the Earth Day Network and the League of Conservation Voters (tied to joint “climate voter” mobilization efforts).
Historical support has also come from big progressive names like the Ford Foundation and Carnegie foundations, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The broader network SVREP works with is also where the Democratic money sharpens. The organization runs within the same Los Angeles/Southern California progressive philanthropy circles that fund health equity, racial justice, and civic engagement work.
While direct grants from The California Endowment to SVREP don’t show up prominently, CalEndow pours millions into aligned causes and organizations that intersect with SVREP’s goals such as “People Power” initiatives, Latino community organizing, and efforts that boost turnout in growing demographic areas. The Endowment’s ecosystem, along with groups like the CCF, creates a reliable pipeline for this kind of work.
The SVREP did not respond to the California Courier’s request for comment.
BACK TO HUNTINGTON BEACH
The tentative ruling from Griffin in Huntington Beach sparked backlash amongst conservatives in the area, including the city’s former mayor Gracey Van Der Mark who is currently running for state assembly.
“This is a problem that’s being created in a city where we don’t have a problem,” Van Der Mark told the California Courier.
“The people who filed the lawsuit to try to turn our city into districts are simply upset that they were not able to get elected for whatever reason, so they’re trying to change the whole system so that they have a better chance,” Van Der Mark added. “That’s not democracy.”
When asked about the intent from the plaintiffs in the case, Van Der Mark denied any disparity occurring in the city. The state assembly candidate noted how the lawsuit was filed while she was the mayor of the city, noting she’s Latina.
“So they’re saying Latinos don’t have representation when it’s a Latina who was representing the entire city,” Van Der Mark told the California Courier. “There’s absolutely no basis for their claims. The bottom line is they’re trying to district cities so they can have the outcome they want instead of what the voters voted on, what they decided.”
“As a Latina who came from a low-income community, single mom, homeless, who was on government aid, no one can tell me that people like me can’t succeed in this city when I was the mayor of this city,” Van Der Mark continued. “So it’s actually insulting and racist for them to even think. And you know the fact that they completely disregarded the fact that I’m a Latina as the mayor of this city, it’s insulting.”
Huntington Beach’s current city attorney Michael Vigliotta had minimal to say about the ruling, highlighting how it was a tentative decision. Vigliotta told the California Courier that he would be able to further comment following a final ruling.
However, Shenkman told the California Courier that he was not only “pleased” with Griffin’s “thoughtful and well-reasoned decision,” but looks forward to a Huntington Beach council “that actually represents all HB residents.”
“It is precisely because the current city council doesn’t represent all HB residents, and rather are more interested in Fox News appearances and showing fealty to an intensely racist dictator than guarding the public fisc, that they have chosen to fight against the voting rights of HB residents,” Shenkman told the California Courier.
“The remaining question now is, in the words of Governor Newsom, are they tired of losing yet?”
But when asked to address initial questions about his connection to the SVREP, developing CVRA cases, and potential concerns regarding the lawsuits Shenkman did not respond.
Even if the rank-choice voting is given the full greenlight in Huntington Beach, Orange County Voter of Registrar Bob Page told the Voice of OC in June that he does not currently have a way to run rank-choice voting elections.
