SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that found voting districts in a Utah county were racially gerrymandered and violated the rights of Navajo voters.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver handed down the opinion Tuesday in the case that resulted in the election of the first majority-Navajo commission in San Juan County, which overlaps with the Navajo Nation.
Republican commissioner Bruce Adams says in a statement he's disappointed by the ruling. He says the new districts unfairly carve up the county's largest city of Blanding, and he had hoped for a new solution.
The opinion comes after U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby found in 2016 that the voting maps packed Democratic-leaning Navajo voters into just one of three districts in the sprawling county located near the Arizona border.