A federal judge presiding over a contentious voting rights fight in Fayette County has ordered the two sides to go to mediation.
The Fayette Board of Commissioner and the NAACP, which sued Fayette county on behalf of a group of black residents, are slated to meet with mediator Steven J. Kaminshine in Atlanta on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The session is not opened to the public. Kaminshine is dean and professor of law at Georgia State University.
The school board, which is also a part of the suit, meets today at 2 p.m. in a special-called meeting. It’s unclear whether the meeting will deal with this issue.
“If the parties are unsuccessful in their efforts to mediate with Dean Kaminshine, the court will immediately conduct and preside over a settlement conference in an attempt to resolve all issues in the case,’” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. said in his Oct. 14 order.
The mediation comes a month before the two sides are set to go to trial before Batten. The county and the national, state and local NAACP have locked horns over the what would be the best method for Fayette to elect its county officials. Fayette - which includes the commissioners and the school board - has argued that at-large voting is best. That system system has been in place since the county’s 1821 founding. The NAACP said at-large has kept blacks off county boards and says district voting is the most equitable method. Two black candidates have recently been elected to the county commission using district voting. Charles Rousseau was recently elected to succeed the late Pota Coston, who was elected last fall becoming the first black county commissioner.
The two sides have been sparring since 2011 when the NAACP sued the county commission and school board over the matter. Both sides have spent a combined $2 million fighting the case.
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