Re: [EL] Query about retention elections

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in Blankenship v. Bartlett, 363 N.C. 518, 681 S.E.2d 759 (2009), that superior court judicial districts within a county can have such disproportionate populations as to violate equal protection principles even though one-person, one-vote is not applicable. So far as we have been able to determine, this was the first such holding in the country. The case dealt with a county in which the population had grown dramatically since the districts were drawn in the 1980s.

Susan Kelly Nichols

Special Deputy Attorney General

N.C. Department of Justice

P.O. Box 629

Raleigh, N.C. 27602-0629

Telephone: 919/716-6890

Facsimile: 919/716-6755

From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu [mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Even, Jeff (ATG)
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 9:33 PM
To: Gaddie, Ronald K.; rick.hasen@lls.edu; Election Law
Subject: Re: [EL] Query about retention elections

No. Wells v. Edwards, 347 F. Supp. 453 (M.D. La. 1972), affirmed, 409 U.S. 1095 (1973).

From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu [mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Gaddie, Ronald K.
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 6:21 PM
To: rick.hasen@lls.edu; Election Law
Subject: [EL] Query about retention elections

A student put a question to me today, and I am passing it on to the list for an answer.

Are judicial elections covered by 1P1V standards? More specifically, if a court is elected using retention elections, but members are appointed from geographic residency districts, must those districts be of approximately equal population?

Thanks,
Keith

Ronald Keith Gaddie

Professor of Political Science

Editor, Social Science Quarterly

The University of Oklahoma
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 222
Norman, OK 73019-2001
Phone 405-325-4989
Fax 405-325-0718

E-mail: rkgaddie@ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/G/Ronald.K.Gaddie-1
http://socialsciencequarterly.org