Open letter to the Beaufort County Commissioners Regarding Electing Commissioners | Eastern North Carolina Now

Gentlemen (Beaufort County Commissioners),

    Last week's Limited Voting Task Force meeting was an interesting experience. Garry seemed intent on pushing the so called "Arrington method" through as the group's choice, claiming it to be a "harmless" alternative to today's method that would give voters the "warm fuzzies" of having been able to vote for an additional commissioner candidate without upsetting the apple cart as far as the results. I was skeptical of the validity of this approach without "running the numbers". Not surprisingly this "subtle change" would most likely have several dramatic effects.

    A minority candidate would be hard pressed to end up among the top four vote getters; the same is true for certain factions of the Republican Party.

    Even without the need for pre-clearance there is no way this change would pass muster with the Federal judge who issued the consent order establishing limited voting in the first place.

    I think we would do better to take our time and look at all the options in greater detail before rushing head long into an option doomed to failure.

    As a number of our neighboring counties (Pitt and Craven among others) have single member districts I for one feel this system could meet our needs without some of the earlier problems from the years pre-dating the Limited Voting agreement.

    When this issue is presented at the July 1st meeting I hope you will send it back to the task force for additional study rather than approving what appears to me as a flawed solution.

    Regards

     John Murphy

John Murphy's Proposal for Single Member Districts in Electing County Commiissioners