On May 21, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy C. Batten, an appointee of President George W. Bush, issued an 81-page opinion in Georgia State Conference of NAACP v Fayette County Board of Commissioners, northern district, 3:11cv-123. The ruling finds that Fayette County, Georgia, is in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act because of its method of electing county commissioners and members of the Board of Education.
Both bodies have five members. They are elected at-large, in numbered posts. That means, instead of the ballot telling voters, “Vote for Five”, each candidate for County Commission and Board of Education runs for one particular numbered seat. Although the county is 20% black, no black has ever been elected to either body. The county uses districts, but only for the purpose of a residency requirement for candidates.
The opinion suggests that at-large elections might have been upheld if it weren’t for the numbered seats provision. If all the members were elected at-large, in a single space on the ballot, it would be easier for a discrete minority to elect one of its preferred candidates by simply voting for that one candidate, and no others. But the numbered seat provision, making each separate seat a separate contest, makes that impossible.