A federal judge Monday ordered Fayette County to use district voting next month to fill a vacancy on the county commission created by the recent death of the county’s first black commissioner.
U.S. District judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. cited the timing of the Sept. 15 special election and noted that Pota Coston was elected using district voting as his reasons for granting the preliminary injunction requested by the NAACP, which has been in three-year legal fight with Fayette over its electoral system.
Batten wrote in a 36-page decision the board of commissioners “is hereby ordered to qualify candidates and conduct such special election, and any related runoff, using the Remedial Plan adopted by this court on February 2014.” Batten ordered the district election plan last year in place of at-large voting.
While Monday’s decision represented a win for the NAACP, Batten cautioned, “this is not a permanent injunction, and it should not be viewed by the parties as an indication that the court will necessarily rule in favor of plaintiffs at trial.”
Batten is set to hear the larger voting rights case in a trial, a decision ordered by the appeals court earlier this year. A trial date has not been set yet.
The NAACP went to court last month to stop Fayette from using at-large or countywide voting in the upcoming special election to fill Pota Coston's commission seat. Coston was the first black person elected to the commission in Fayette's nearly 200-year history. She died July 3.
The 56-year-old Tyrone resident was elected last November using district election, the system ordered by Batten in 2013 to replace at-large voting.
The dispute over the special-election emerged last month after county elections board officials said they had no choice but to use at-large voting for the Sept. 15 special election because local law requires at-large voting to be used for such elections. Batten’s 2013 ruling did not include provisions for which electoral process should be used for special elections.
Efforts to reach the county commission were unsuccessful Monday evening.
“That’s fantastic news,” said Francys Johnson, a Statesboro civil rights attorney who is president of the Georgia NAACP. “We expected this. The court made it clear in its order (Monday) that the African-american citizens of Fayette County have been denied the right to elect a candidate of their choice in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Judge Batten thwarted their attempts to roll back the clock on progress following Pota Coston’s untimely death. What a fitting tribute to her legacy.”
While the county was preparing to run a countywide election Sept 15, it also is able to handle the district voting and will need fewer volunteers, a point Batten noted in his decision Monday.
Meanwhile, district voting is in limbo as the larger voting rights case heads to trial. In January, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for a trial. The appeals judges were careful not to "disturb" the district court's findings or the outcome of the November election but they want Batten to hear evidence in the case in a trial setting.
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