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By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - On October 4, 2012, several Pike County residents joined together to file a lawsuit in Pike County Superior Court contesting the School Board District elections that took place on July 31 and August 21, 2012. Their complaint says that Pike County did not complete 2012 redistricting prior to the 2012 Primary Election and that the election under the old voting district lines should be declared null and void with a new election being held to determine the winners of the Board of Education races.
This is not the first lawsuit filed to contest the July Primary and August Run Off. The first two lawsuits ended with mutual dismissals. Two of the Plaintiffs from the earlier lawsuits are a part of the new lawsuit that has been assigned to Judge Fletcher Sams. Here are the facts of both the old and new cases as well as a review of how some of the other counties around the state have dealt with the same problems of redistricting and the need for Department of Justice approval on all voting maps in the state of Georgia.
New districts were created and approved in the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly. House Bill (HB) 906, also known as General Assembly Act No. 308, was approved on February 27, 2012 and signed by the Governor. These new voting district lines are intended to take the place of the 2002 district lines. The new lines are based on the latest census taken in 2010. The Board of Education submitted the new voting lines to the Department of Justice for approval on April 17, 2012. Qualifying for the July 31, 2012 election was held on May 23 through May 25, 2012 according to the old voting lines. The Department of Justice sent a pre-clearance letter dated June 15, 2012 to the Board of Education giving an ok on the new school board district lines. Pike County's Elections Superintendent chose to go ahead with the old voting lines because of limited personnel in the Voter Registrar's Office and the limited amount of time to get the lines reviewed with needed changes made for voters in Pike County prior to the election. Pike County Times has not been able to find any documentation which gives a timeline when redistricting is required to be completed with regard to any election.
The election was held on July 31, 2012 with the old voting district lines. According to the county, there is no requirement on when the redistricting had to be completed once preclearance was given by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires that all changes in voting maps be frozen and not used until the DOJ reviews them to be sure that there is no dilution of minority votes according to the new voting maps. Georgia is one of many states around the nation that have to meet this requirement before going forward with new voting maps. http://redistricting.lls.edu/who-preclear.php has a list of states that are covered under this requirement.
According to the DOJ's website http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/about.php, these voting protections began in 1965 and will continue through 2031. According to the website, the DOJ has received submissions for voting changes between 14,000 and 22,000 per year for the past ten years. Most are approved, but about one percent of the voting changes have not been approved since Section 5 was enacted.
What is required once preclearance is given by the DOJ? Voter Registrar personnel must drive the new map to note the new boundaries. This requires two personnel--one driving and one reading the map and writing down where the voter physical addresses are located. For example, houses on opposite sides of the road can be in different districts depending upon their location. After physically mapping each address, the Voter Registrar's Office would mark the roads on the computer system in order to move them into the correct districts and then move voters into the correct voting districts. Pike County Times has not been able to find any written documentation which gives a timeline when redistricting is required to be completed with regard to any election.
Preclearance was given on June 15, 2012 with official approval being sent from the DOJ on June 29, 2012, just 32 days prior to the July 31, 2012 election. The ballots were already printed on June 15, 2012 and, according to the Secretary of State's website, the Voter Registrar's office could begin sending out ballots to absentee voters and military personnel located overseas as soon as June 16, 2012. Due to limited personnel in the Voter Registrar office and the requirement that personnel personally inspect each property along the new voting district lines, the decision was made to proceed with the old maps until the DOJ made a decision. When asked why the county did not act prior to DOJ preclearance on the new voting maps, limited personnel and the possibility of denial were pointed out. "Our best course was to wait until preclearance from the Department of Justice," said county attorney Rob Morton.
The results of the July 31, 2012 Primary are as follows: In the District 4 race, Robert E. Adams received 69 votes (10.66% of the vote), Jim Brooks received 245 votes (37.87% of the vote), Connie Green received 195 votes (30.14% of the vote) and Marty Wynn received 135 votes (20.87% of the vote). In the District 5 race, April Byrd received 371 votes (54.08%) and Parrish Swift received 314 votes (45.77%). April Byrd was declared the winner in the Board of Education District 5 race. A Run Off would be held between Jim Brooks and Connie Green on the state mandated Run Off date of August 21, 2012. Subsequently, the votes were certified by Elections Superintendent Lynn Brandenburg and the Secretary of State's Office.
On August 20, 2012, Robert E. Adams Jr. filed a complaint in Pike County Superior Court to contest the District 4 School Board qualifications, the July 31, 2012 election, and the resulting run off election that was scheduled and held on the following day, August 21, 2012. The case was filed against Elections Superintendent Lynn Brandenburg as well as the other candidates in the race, Jim Brooks, Connie, Green and Marty Wynn. Mr. Adams alleged in this complaint that the election and run off violated the “one person, one vote” concept in the Fourteenth Amendment which says that “(1) member from EACH district SHALL be elected from each such district. This SHALL correspond to those (6) [school board] districts…” Mr. Adams said that Mr. Brooks, Mrs. Green and Mr. Wynn all live in District 5 according to the new school board lines that were approved by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor on February 27, 2012 and approved by the Department of Justice in a letter dated June 15, 2012, and that they should not have been allowed to run in this district under the old school board district lines. Mr. Adams finished out his complaint by saying, “The election superintendent and staff, failed to execute his obligation to the people of the 4th District School Board voters by halting the elections until all issues were resolved.” A Notice of Hearing was set for September 5, 2012 before the Honorable William H. Ison, Senior Judge of the 6th Judicial Administrative District on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 9 a.m.
The Run off was held on August 21, 2012 on the Board of Education District 4 race between Jim Brooks and Connie Green. Jim Brooks received 153 votes (56.88%) and Connie Green received 113 (42.01%) of the vote. Jim Brooks was declared the winner in the Board of Education District 4 race and the votes were certified by Elections Superintendent Lynn Brandenburg and the Secretary of State's Office.
On August 21, 2012, Patricia Beckham filed a petition against Elections Superintendent Lynn Brandenburg and staff and Board of Education District 5 candidates April Byrd and Parrish Swift in Pike County Superior Court. Mrs. Beckham contested the July 31, 2012 District 5 School Board election because she says that she was “incorrectly registered” to vote in School Board District 4 according to the lines of the new school board districts that were approved by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor on February 27, 2012 and approved by the Department of Justice on June 15, 2012. She ended her petition by saying, “The election superintendent and staff, failed to execute their obligation to the people of the 5th district school board voters by halting or delaying the election until all issues were resolved with respect to the NEW lines and voting stations.” On September 5, 2012, a Notice of Hearing was set for this case before the Honorable William H. Ison, Senior Judge of the 6th Judicial Administrative District on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 9 a.m. This was the same date as the Adams complaint.
County Attorney Rob Morton was given notice that the Elections Superintendent Lynn Brandenburg was being served as a part of the lawsuit and was called to be a part of the case by representing the interests of the county. There were conflicts with dates at that time due to leaves of absence that were filed prior to the complaints in Pike County Superior Court. When the judge would not change the appearance date to the following week from September 21, 2012, Donald Cronin from McDonough was called in to provide assistance on the case. In the end, the judge had a conflict with the date and rescheduled the case until September 25, 2012.
Pike County answered Mrs. Beckham's lawsuit by saying that the Petition to Contest the Primary election was not filed until after the election results were "officially certified" by the Elections Superintendent on August 3, 2012. It noted that OCGA 21-2-524(a) says that a petition to contest a primary or election must be filed "within five days after the official consolidation of the returns of that particular office or question and certification by the election official". According to that state requirement, the complaint should have been filed by August 8, 2012 because the election results were certified by Elections Superintendent Brandenburg on August 3, 2012. The county asked for attorney's fees related to this litigation.
In response to Mr. Adams' lawsuit, the county also said that this challenge to the July 31, 2012 primary was not filed timely according to the same section of Georgia Code (OCGA) stated above. It went on to say that Mr. Adams was not eligible to contest the run off election on August 21, 2012 because he was not a candidate in the run off election. The county also asked for attorney's fees related to the litigation.
A complaint was made in court on June 26, 2012 in a similar case in Bibb County. That case alleged that the school board districts were “unconstitutionally malapportioned in light of the 2010 census” after the House approved the redistricting and that there was a violation of the one-person/one vote requirement of the 14th Amendment. The DOJ did not give Bibb County preclearance until June 12, 2012 and Bibb County had decided to go with the old maps because of the short span of time prior to the election. The Bibb County case was settled on June 29, 2012 prior to any election with orders to delay the July 31, 2012 election in order to allow Bibb County the time to construct their databases through the services of the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University which would perform the administrative tasks needed to reconfigure the voting lists and ensure that voters were placed correctly into the new districts. The court concluded that the “most practical and least disruptive remedy” for this case was to require that the general primary election for the school board be held on August 21, 2012 which was the scheduled date of the primary run-off elections with two additional days of qualifying on July 9 and 10 and a refund of qualification fees if candidates chose to withdraw based on the new voter district lines.
Chatham County did not receive approval of its new school board and county commission maps until June 12, 2012. There was a lot of discussion on using the new maps versus the old maps prior to the election. http://www.thecoastalsource.com/news/local/story/Redrawn-district-maps-wont-be-used-for-elections/rCzoDyEczUyI9kCxPwDu5w.cspx?rss=1669 Ultimately, candidates qualified under the old lines there and, according to GPB News, a Secretary of State spokesman said that the Chatham County Elections Supervisor could decide how to continue with the election since three of the candidates did not live in the districts in which they qualified to run for office.
Even counties that requested an expedited review from the DOJ such as Cherokee County were under a tight deadline and announced that if the DOJ did not respond in a timely manner, they would have to go with the old maps in order to ensure that overseas and absentee ballots could be printed and sent out in time for the July 31, 2012 Primary Election. http://www.ledgernews.com/news/weekly-news/1269-may-23-2012/5083-ballots-waiting-on-justice-department
Here in Pike County, both of the complaints and counterclaims as well as the requests for attorney's fees were dismissed by a mutual agreement of both parties on September 24, 2012. However, on October 4, 2012, M. Michael Kendall of Griffin filed a lawsuit in the Pike County Superior Court citing constitutional objections of "one person, one vote" and the Fourteenth Amendment. Robert E. Adams, Jr., Patricia A. Beckham, Martha J. O'Neal, and Betty Willis v. The Pike County School District, Lynn Brandenburg, in his official capacity as the Pike County Elections Superintendent, and Walter James "Jim" Brooks alleges that Walter James "Jim" Brooks was elected to the District 4 Board of Education (BOE) seat when he actually lives in District 5 because candidates were allowed to qualify under the old district maps. It also alleges that because the elections were conducted under the old map, the school board district races held on July 31, 2012 and August 21, 2012 are illegal.
They ask for Injunctive Relief including a court ruling disqualifying Walter James "Jim" Brooks be disqualified as the winner of the BOE District 4 race and that he not be allowed to take the oath of office because he does not reside in District 4 under the new maps. It requests that the court rule the 2012 Board of Education elections under the old maps unconstitutional under the Fourteen Amendment because the Plaintiff's votes were "diluted and debased" because candidates were allowed to run in and voters allowed to vote in districts that they did not reside in under the new maps. It stated that holding an election based on the old maps is a violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. It also alleges that the Board of Education submitted the new maps to the DOJ to ask for preclearance five days later than the required deadline of 45 days after the maps became were approved by the state under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 rules and that the Board of Education did not ask for an expedited review of the new maps in order to try to get the maps quicker than through regular submission because of the upcoming school board elections. According to this lawsuit, expedited reviews are "routine" when there are time constraints.
To sum up the lawsuit, they ask for attorney's fees, that Jim Brooks be declared ineligible to serve as the District 4 representative, that the District 3, 4, and 5 School Board elections on July 31 and August 21 be declared invalid and that new qualifying and elections be held under the new maps. The county has thirty days to file an answer to this lawsuit.
County Attorney Rob Morton gave the following comment on the lawsuit: "We acknowledge that a lawsuit has been filed in Pike County Superior Court. It raised constitutional issues--both U.S. and Georgia. We have no further comment."
Dr. Michael Duncan, Superintendent of the Pike County School System gave this comment on the lawsuit: "The School Board, with the assistance of its legal counsel, redistricted school board boundaries in accordance with the law. Since we are not responsible for executing elections, we are surprised in our inclusion in this suit."
[Note from the Editor: If the county were to lose this court battle, a new election will cost in the neighborhood of $20,000.]
Click here to read a copy of the new lawsuit.
[Note from the Editor Added On 12.18.12: This case was dismissed on December 17, 2012.] Readers can read about the court hearing and Judge's ruling made by clicking here.