Commission, school board urged to continue opposition to racially-drawn district voting lines; see opinion column and letter to the editor
The outcome of the district voting lawsuit brought by the NAACP against the Fayette County Commission (BOC) and Fayette County Board of Education (BOE) is still hanging in the balance as all parties continue to try to submit to mediation on the orders of federal Judge Timothy Batten.
Weighing in on the topic in this week’s edition of The Citizen were positions taken by Fayette County Republican Party Chairman Tyrone Jones and Fayette Issues Tea Party co-founder Bob Ross. Both maintain that the suit by the NAACP is not supported by the facts and both agree that the BOC and BOE should continue in their stand for at-large voting.
“It is evident that the NAACP complaint filed in federal court alleging that the election process in Fayette County is a ‘racist process’ designed to elect only white candidates and deny black candidates a fair shot at winning elections is without merit,” said Jones, who himself is African American.
Jones in the letter cited the November election in Fayetteville where a black councilman on his own merits defeated the white incumbent mayor.
“His victory is an undeniable and irrefutable contradiction to the NAACP’s complaint,” said Jones.
Ross in his column quoted Batten’s original decision which stated, “The Court agrees with the County Defendants that in contrast to many plaintiffs, Plaintiffs have not proffered evidence relating specifically to discrimination in Fayette County.”
Continuing, Ross said, “What we do see in Fayette County is overwhelming support for conservative candidates. And therein lies what appears to be the NAACP leadership’s actual concern: the election of liberals.”
Supplying charts related to the votes for black candidates in elections in 2004 and 2006, Ross said, “Black candidates ran for three seats on the BOC and BOE, but NAACP leaders did not support these very qualified conservatives. Those three Republicans received between 82-90 percent of their votes from white voters across the county. Had black voters supported them with anything even close to that margin, they would have been easily elected and ably served.”
The district voting lawsuit in Fayette County has been going on for several years. It first went to Judge Batten’s court where he ruled in favor of the NAACP, then to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal where in January the case was sent back to Batten for a bench trial.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the appeal by the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education of a federal court decision mandating district voting in Fayette County determined the need for a trial rather than relying on the summary judgment issued previously by Judge Batten.
The trial was scheduled for Nov. 16, but was postponed without a new date being set.
The trial originally scheduled to begin Nov. 16 in the district voting lawsuit was postponed with no alternate date set, with Batten’s order stating, “The trial of this action set for November 16, 2015, and all other scheduled deadlines, are hereby continued until further order of the Court.”
All the parties were directed to attend mediation and settlement talks with a court-appointed mediator. Those talks are ongoing.
