HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93009_0235 (2)AIT I.1993 218
MOTION from Commissioner Stewart to adopt the following:
WHEREAs, the Iredell County Board of Commissioners during the
regularly scheduled meeting on August 17, 1993 officially
designated the Iredell County Department of Social services as the
Lead Agency in the Iredell County Community Alternatives Program by
adopting the following resolutions
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Iredell County Board of Commissioners
does hereby designate the Iredell County Department of Social
Services as the lead agency for the Iredell County Community
Alternatives Program.
VOTING: Ayes - 4; Nays - 0.
APPOINTMENTS BEFORE THE BOARD
DISCUSSION OF DISTRICT VOTING FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS:
Chairman Haire asked Mr. Bill Pope, County Attorney, to introduce
the special legal counsel, Mr. Mike Crowell. Mr. Crowell practices
with a law firm in Raleigh. Prior to that he was associated with
the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina for
15 years. Mr. Crowell has a special area of expertise which is in
the area of district voting. He is familiar with the Iredell
County voting facts because he has been retained by Iredell County
in the past.
Mr. Crowell said the two questions he has been looking at are:
1. If Iredell County were sued under the Voting Rights Act,
could you be forced to change the way in which the commissioners
are elected to improve the black voters the change to elect
candidates of their choice?
2. Even if the County were not subject to such a law suit,
were not forced to make such a change, but you wanted to on your
own, create districts in which minority voters had a better chance
of electing candidates, could the County do that?
Mr. Crowell discussed the Voting Rights Act and one person one
vote. There have been several suits in North Carolina during the
last ten years. Virtually always the claim is the at -large
districts prevent minority voters from electing candidates of their
choice and that violates the Voting Rights Act.
Mr. Crowell said there are three elements the Supreme Court
has said are crucial to any claim under the Voting Rights Act.
These are:
1. What is the election history been?
2. is voting racially polarized?
3. if the above two are true, is there an alternative
available to improve the Blacks' chances of getting
elected.
Mr. Crowell stated some of the Iredell County statistics that
are pertinent to the Voting Rights discussion. Iredell County had
92,931 people in the 1990 Census. Of this number, 14,869 are
black. This is 168 of the population. The voting age population
is 14.2% over age 18 are Black. There is proportionately more
young people in the Black population.
In looking at a potential Voting Rights Case in Iredell
County, Crowell said, the one person one vote must be observed.
That means that the voting districts have to contain the same
number of people. The rule of thumb for drawing districts is
called a 11108 deviation", Crowell said. If five districts were
drawn with the 92,931 population (1990 Census), each district would