Stan Deatherage proposes to end "limited voting" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    There are few people in Beaufort County who have had more experience with designing electoral systems than has Stan Deatherage. He has been "in the room" when most of the decisions have been made on how the Beaufort County Commission will be elected. And he has spent hours at the state's computer terminals trying to draw suitable districts to allow the commission to be elected by districts. Thus, he is arguably the most knowledgeable person about "limited voting" that we have in Beaufort County at this time.

    Using his knowledge and experience he has proposed an alternative to the "limited voting" system mandated by a court order a number of years ago.

    You can read the proposal at Beaufort County Now to go to the original source.

    Commentary

    We commend Stan for his vision. We don't agree with him that a five-member commission is the best way to go, simply because a smaller board will result in less diversity in thinking and fewer ideas. You have fewer possibilities to call to express your interests. Larger boards simply give every citizen a greater chance of finding a board member who will be responsive to their concerns.

    The issue is not how many votes you get as much as it is that you get to vote for someone you feel will adequately represent you. That is what a republican system of government is all about. The point is not to fool yourself into thinking you can vote in such a way as to elect a majority on most boards or bodies, but rather that somebody will be elected who will represent your interests. And it is equally important if you ever feel a need to contact an elected official that the official believe you can vote for or against him/her. That is why even limited voting is better than the district system. You only get one shot in the district system.

    And in an at-large system, such as the Washington City Council, you will be hard pressed to find many people who voted for the majority of the members. Just having five votes does not mean you have more voting power. In the current limited voting system you have seven shots, simply because each member knows your vote is important to them.

    But every system has its pros and cons. Most any would be better than simply keeping the limited voting for a seven member board and adding one vote every other election as Gary Brinn's committee has recommended. That proposal would surely be tangled up in court for years while wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    But so would Stan's proposal. But so would any change for that matter.

    It is a fool's rush to try to change any electoral system before we know what Congress is going to do about revising the Voting Rights Act.

    And that's enough said about Beaufort County jumping in over its head until wil know how deep the water is.