Greenfield makes the switch to district elections, with hope for better representation.

Until now, Greenfield voters anywhere have been able to vote for all four members of City Council and the mayor. This year, that will change when the city holds district elections for the first time.

The shift was triggered by a 2020 request from one of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) chapters in Salinas. LULAC’s letter to the city stated that, based on demographics and election results that were not representative, the city was violating the California Rights Act of 2001. (Normally, cities have 90 days to make a transition from at-large to district elections, but the city got an extension to avoid a redo once the 2020 Census results were out.)

Greenfield has a population of 18,937 and is overwhelmingly Latino, 90 percent. There are just 5,828 registered voters in Greenfield, according to the Monterey County Elections Department.

Councilmember Drew Tipton thinks Greenfield is too small to benefit from district elections, and argues that any candidate for an at-large seat needs Latino voters in order to win an election. “The whole idea of there being racially polarized voting is ludicrous,” he says.

On the other hand, Beatriz Diaz, president of Greenfield’s LULAC chapter – founded after the letter from the Salinas chapter – says district elections “will help to create more engagement and more opportunity to run for office.”

Council received 11 proposed district maps and selected one in March, then adopted an ordinance authorizing district elections on April 16. Seats in District 1 (now represented by both Tipton and Angela Untalon) and District 3 – which has no current representative – are up for election in November.