Earlier this year, a L.A. County judge found that Palmdale's at-large elections — where the whole city votes on each district's representative — was in violation of the California Voting Rights Act and therefore illegal.

The decision is based on the interpretation that the old system denies Latinos and African Americans a shot at sending one of their own to city council. Now the same judge ordered the city to hold new by-district elections for their four City Council seats.

Professor Richard Hasen at UC Irvine joins the show with more.