[EL] "NPR Story Suggests Macon Ga. Move of Election Day to Summer Not Challenged Because of Cost"

[Rob Richie]

Note that similar change in Augusta, Georgia was denied preclearance, but
now has been done again over the apparent objection of the city. There is
no doubt that non-November elections have older, whiter and wealtheir
electorates than November electorates, although facts would have to be
reviewed to see how that affected the potential of minority vote dilution.
I have pasted in a couple stories and excerpts below.

In an era of low and still-declining local election turnouts, moves to make
them even smaller should be eyed skeptically, I would argue, especially
when forced upon a locality by the state. Rather interesting that some
state leaders who are particularly forceful in complaining about federal
government overreach seem rather quick to exert power and remove local
control from cities and counties.

- Rob Richie

##############
http://chronicle.augusta
.com/news/government/2014-01-21/governor-signs-bill-moving-elections-may

...House Bill 310 aligns state and local nonpartisan elections, such as the
mayor and commission races and two state court judgeships, and state party
primaries, with the May 20 date of the federal primary, which was set by a
federal judge to accommodate military voters. The bill also moves
qualifying for the local and state posts earlier, to the week of March 3.
        The bill has statewide impact, and the date shift will be a
significant change for Augusta voters, who have elected the city's mayor
and 10 commissioners in November since consolidation. The mayor's post and
commission districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are up for election this year. *An
earlier statewide effort to move the dates excluded Augusta because the
city charter specifies that it conduct elections in November, while a later
bill seeking to move Augusta's elections to the primary date was rejected
by the U.S. Department of Justice*.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/city-ink/2014-01-18/may-election-date-causes-time-crunch-sales-tax-package
[Example of story of how it is creating prolbems for Augusta having to rush
to organize an election]



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Richie
Executive Director, FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
rr at fairvote.org  (301) 270-4616  http://www.fairvote.org
*Social Media*: *FairVote Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/FairVoteReform>*   *FairVote Twitter
<https://twitter.com/fairvote>*  My Twitter <https://twitter.com/rob_richie>
*First Million Campaign*  Thank you for considering a tax-deductible
donation<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2495/t/10346/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5643>
to
support FairVote's Reform2020.com vision. (Combined Federal Campaign number
is 10132.)


On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 1:06 PM, Edward Still <still at votelaw.com> wrote:

> I expect that the cost angle was played up because it is easier to
> understand. Also the cost is an outward and visible sign of the complexity
> of these cases.
>
> Ed
>
> Edward Still
> Edward Still Law Firm LLC
> 130 Wildwood Parkway STE 108-304
> Birmingham AL 35209
> 205-320-2882
> still at votelaw.com
> www.votelaw.com/blog
> www.edwardstill.com
> www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill <http://www.linkedin.com/edwardstill>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20140208/7b676edd/attachment.html>