No stopping it now
Published August 27, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, August 27, 2015.
Not many people try to intervene in lawsuits as defendants. But nothing about the SB 36/HB 263 roller-coaster ride has been normal.
A group led by Melvin “Skip” Alston and Earl Jones, “Concerned Citizens for Fair Elections,” filed a motion Monday for permission to defend the Greensboro City Council election plan approved by the legislature July 2 but stopped from taking effect by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles three weeks later.
The city sued the Guilford County Board of Elections to overturn the law, which was opposed by the council and large majorities of residents who turned out at public hearings. Eagles granted a preliminary injunction barring the law from taking effect until the case is fully heard, perhaps next year. Her order allowed this year’s elections to proceed under the system in place for the past three decades.
Monday’s filing asks the court to declare the city had no legal standing to file a lawsuit and to let the elections take place as directed by the legislature. Both requests should be promptly denied.
Eagles didn’t see any reason to question the city’s legal standing. On the contrary: The city was directly affected by the legislation.
“This prevents the City Council from changing anything about its election process or the mayor’s voting rights, and it prevents the city from acting on any petition from Greensboro voters seeking either a referendum on any or all of the changes made by the legislature or from making any changes at all in governmental form,” she wrote in her order.
Halting the election process now would be costly and confusing. It was unreasonable on July 2 for the legislature to impose a new election system on the city and have it go into effect immediately. Now it’s nearly two months later. The candidates have filed and a primary will be held in just six weeks. It’s too late to stop that and put new voting districts in place, then reopen candidate filing and hold an election.
This has been an unwarranted assault on the city from the time Sen. Trudy Wade filed Senate Bill 36 in February. It sought to draw new election districts, eliminate at-large seats and deprive the mayor of voting power in most instances. The proposal met with overwhelming public opposition. While it passed the Senate, it stalled in a House committee.
Then Wade moved its provisions to House Bill 263, which made election changes for the Trinity City Council. That, too, passed the Senate but was voted down in the House. A conference committee made further changes, but that version also was rejected by the House — until it was brought up for yet another vote and passed, after some political arm-twisting.
Alston and Jones, former Democratic elected officials, along with a handful of Republican Wade supporters, back the council changes. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion. They didn’t like Eagles’ ruling or the fact that Guilford County didn’t defend the bill and that the attorney general and legislature chose to stay out of the court proceedings. Yet, there wasn’t much of a defense to be made. The legislature erred legally when it chose to deprive Greensboro and its citizens of certain rights regarding local government that are enjoyed in every other North Carolina city.
Alston and Jones, not the most popular figures in Greensboro, can try to bend the roller-coaster their way, but they won’t stop the election process now underway.
