After almost a half century of battles targeting at-large elections as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, African-Americans remain under-represented in county governments across the state, an exclusive analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed. At-large voting and black under-representation still go hand-in-hand, leaving some local governments, which decide matters of great importance for day-to-day living, without any black representation.
Statewide, more than 100 counties elect at least one commissioner at large, meaning by countywide vote. Sixty percent of voters in those at-large contests are white; 92 percent of commissioners who hold the seats are white.
The AJC’s analysis compared the racial makeup of each of Georgia’s 159 county commissions to the racial makeup of the county itself.
In some counties, such as Fulton, whites are under-represented on the commission. But that is far less common than black under-representation.
“There’s no question that a district form of voting normally benefits the racial minority,” said Chris Coates, a civil rights lawyer who left the Justice Department in a dispute with the Obama administration and recently defended South Carolina’s voter ID law.
Conversely, Coates said, a system that includes at-large voting “normally solidifies the strength of the racial majority.”
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