In November 2008, the voters of Kinston, North Carolina, voted to convert city elections from partisan to non-partisan. However, the U.S. Justice Department, Voting Rights Section, refused to allow the change.
Now advocates of non-partisan elections have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the Voting Rights Act, Section 5, is unconstitutional. Section 5 is the part of the Voting Rights Act that requires certain states to ask permission from the Voting Rights Section before changing any election law or practice. Most of the states covered by Section 5 are in the South. The voters were free to simply ask the U.S. District Court to overrule the Voting Rights Section, and approve the change from partisan to non-partisan elections. Instead, they are asking that the federal law itself be invalidated. The new case is LaRoque v Holder, 1:10-cv-00561. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for thisnews.
I am the Wayne County Director for the Constitution Party of North Carolina. I went over to kinston and the Constitution Party presented a resoultion against kinston city council calling on them to challenge this ruling. I am glad someone has filed a lawsuit. Thank you Stephen LaRoque. I hope you win back your NC House spot… We need men like him in office.
I hope that their case fares well, as I truly believe that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is purely unconstitutional and violation of State’s Rights. The Congress has authority to alter or meddle with federal elections (US House seats) under Article I Section 4 of the US Constitution but that is the extent of federal power, not an overreaching authority as given through Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
Each State happens to be a sovereign NATION-State regime — derived from the last paragraph of the 4 July 1776 DOI and repeated in the 1783 U.S.A. – Great Britain Peace Treaty — after the many dead and injured Americans and Allies (mainly French) in 1775-1781.
See Art. VII of the nearly dead 1787 U.S.A. Constitution.
The VRA is a New Age giant perversion of the 15th Amdt — due to the MORONS in the Congress NOT having enough brain cells to enact a very simple law —
Any person holding any government office in the United States who violates Section 1 of the 15th Amendment shall
(a) be guilty of a felony,
(b) be removed from office,
(c) be fined a billion dollars and
(d) be put in jail for 100 years.
[same for the 13th and 14th Amdts – or ANY part of the U.S.A. Constitution]
Result — NO more violations by the EVIL party hacks of the 15th Amdt.
I will admit, the Voting Rights Act is a bit outdated. It is no longer needed.
In Evers v. State Board of Election Commissioners (1971), a three-judge federal panel blocked implementation of the “top two” (“open primary”) for Mississippi’s state and local elections. The Dept. of Justice had failed to approve or disapprove the “top two,” and the court did not have the authority to order its implementation.
In that case, all three judges opined that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional.