Advocates are calling on the Town of Islip to be more equitable in how town leaders follow a federal court order to carve up the municipality into council districts to resolve a voting discrimination lawsuit.
The Islip Town National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch unveiled a proposed town council district map in an attempt to reduce racial disparities on the all-white town board, which is solidly Republican. Islip officials drew new district lines shortly after the town settled the lawsuit last year and agreed to replace the at-large voting system. But advocates say the lines the town came up with split existing communities instead of keeping them in districts with their neighbors.
“Central Islip finds itself chopped up into pretty much every district on the map, other than District 3,” said Vincent Vertuccio, co-chair of Mobilize Suffolk Blue. “If you live in Sayville or Bayport, Central Islip is not only geographically distant, but there is almost no cultural or ethnic similarity in those communities. What this map does is it dilutes the voting power of Central Islip, and that has a lot of consequences. It affects the power of underrepresented, marginalized communities to elect their representatives.”
Multiple panelists suggested that the current district map was gerrymandered to maintain a majority Republican town council during future elections by dividing the minority population, which is more Democratic, across multiple districts. The town declined to comment on the advocates’ proposal.
“The challenge is that the 2019 Supreme Court, by 5-4 decision, said that partisan gerrymandering is OK,” said Marvin Smith, an NAACP member and Islip resident. “What we have in the Central Islip community, is even darker than that. Central Islip has the largest density of Black voters in the town of Islip.”
To provide minority voices with a fair chance to win council elections, the revised map would group Central Islip into District 2, pair Sayville and West Sayville in District 4 and all of Brentwood, a predominantly Hispanic and Latino community, into District 1.
Under the plan proposed by NAACP, the four districts will be grouped by cultural and ethnic similarities but will still respect state guidelines by maintaining deviation levels within the 5 percent in each district, an argument the town allegedly made to justify the current district lines.
“The revised option provides a more even distribution of registered voters across each of the four new council districts, while District 4 has a slightly higher deviation in the original option, the deviation levels in the revised option are much more even in three of the districts,” said Edward O’Donnell of Sayville Citizens. “In regard to demographics, the revised option provides a greater voice to minority populations via a greater concentration of African American and Hispanic citizens in Districts 2 and 3, rather than spreading these groups across three different districts.”
Advocates said they are prepared to file another lawsuit against the town for discrimination against the Black community if the lines are not fairly re-drawn.
Related Story: Islip Will Split Into Council Districts To Settle Lawsuit
