Bladen County’s Black residents aren’t having it. They showed up in droves to a Monday board of commissioners meeting in Elizabethtown to object to a proposed election change that some feared would have reduced minority representation.
The commissioners never voted on the proposal, though. Board chairman Cameron McGill, also a pastor of a local congregation, announced his intention to let the idea go in a speech befitting a Sunday sermon.
The issue arose during a mid-May meeting, when McGill announced that he had been praying. For years, he’s wondered why the relatively small Bladen County is one of four counties with nine commissioners, while the majority of counties have five, he said.
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During a tough budget season, that incongruity stood out more.
“It’s hypocritical for us to tell our county and our department heads and our employees, ‘You all need to learn to do more with less manpower,’ and yet we’re so disproportionate when you consider the size of our county compared to others,” McGill said during the May meeting.
So, he proposed a change: moving from nine to five commissioners. It would save the county about $75,000 a year. In November, voters would have decided whether they approved the change, and if a majority did, Bladen County commissioners would have asked state lawmakers to change the law.
Monday night, McGill said he had no idea just how unpopular that idea would be.
Voting Rights Act led to current system
In Bladen County, six commissioners are elected from three districts, with two advancing from each. The other three are elected at large on a limited voting basis, meaning that every voter in the county votes the at-large candidates and the top three win a seat.
The system is designed to protect minority representation by allowing each subset of the county to elect its preferred candidate, instead of allowing the majority to decide everything. As a result, three Black commissioners on the nine-member board, which is proportional to the Black population, which makes up about 32% of the county.
Before 1988, though, there had only been one Black commissioner, who was originally appointed to fill a vacancy, according to court documents.
The system was set up differently, with five commissioners elected on an at-large basis.
In 1987, a group of Black citizens sued under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, claiming in Harry v. Bladen County that the five-member, at-large system diluted minority voting power. The following year, the county settled the case and agreed to the current election system.
“This was part of a broader strategy of activists and civil rights attorneys to basically ensure fair representation for Black and brown voters throughout the South at the county level,” said Hilary Klein, Southern Coalition for Social Justice senior counsel for voting rights. “So there were grossly unfair methods of elections, including in Bladen County.”
Bladen proposal followed court ruling
In late April, the US Supreme Court weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The majority ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that to successfully sue under Section 2 of the VRA, plaintiffs cannot just show a discriminatory racial effect of an election law or map; they also must show discriminatory intent.
The ruling set off a series of last-minute congressional map redraws across the country, but Klein said the impact may also touch local communities.
While the Callais ruling does not require communities to undo efforts to increase minority representation, it removes any requirement to keep those efforts in place.
“The only reason you want to change it is if you’re trying to weaponize the Callais decision from the Supreme Court, in my view,” she said. “… I think the timing of when this proposal is being made makes it very clear that this proposal is a result of the Callais decision that gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
During the meeting, McGill said the timing had nothing to do with the Supreme Court case; it was entirely related to Bladen County’s budget.
McGill did not settle on a specific configuration for his five-member commission proposal. During the May meeting, commissioners floated the idea of electing all five commissioners at-large, or having three elected from the current districts and two elected at-large.
In McGill’s estimation, the latter option would have resulted in about the same racial and partisan makeup, he told attendees Monday night.
“My intent was not to silence anybody,” he said. “My intent was not to alienate anybody.”
Black commissioner Ophelia Munn-Goins disagreed. She said she thought the change would have a negative impact on representation.
Prentis Benston, Bladen County’s first Black sheriff, said taxpayers expect to have someone to talk to about their community’s issues. Removing a representative would make the remaining representative less accessible.
He said in his 38 years since the court settlement, he hasn’t heard anyone say the current system isn’t fair. Benston said there’s other issues to address, like high taxes, water problems and uncleaned roadside ditches.
“I don’t think as a county commission you should create problems for citizens, but you should be in the business of trying to solve problems for the citizens of the county,” he said.
About 200 attendees, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in pews at the county courthouse, felt similarly. As McGill implored them to trust him, they expressed doubt.
“I’m not up here trying to pander to you all, I’m not up here trying to get myself out of a hot seat,” McGill told them.
“Yes, you are,” several members of the crowd responded in unison.
During the public comment period, Herman Lewis said he understood where Bladen commissioners were coming from with their budget concerns, but advised them to “keep people in mind when you’re making these decisions.”
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’
Before the Callais ruling came down, two state lawmakers presented a bill that would have made similar changes in Jacksonville.
House Bill 1038 would have shifted the city council from 4 councilmembers elected from districts and two elected at-large to an all at-large council. Rep. Wyatt Gable, R-Onslow, told WITN that some districts had way fewer people than others, and the goal was to even that out.
City council members strongly objected to the idea, which they did not request. They said it would dilute minority voting power. The bill has not moved forward since.
In the two days before Monday night’s meeting, McGill received a similar level of outcry in his email inbox. He wasn’t expecting it.
He listened. At the end of his speech, McGill abandoned his proposal.
“Basically, forget it,” he said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Word spread about the proposal in churches and through the grapevine. Some attendees were satisfied with the turnaround after the meeting.
“I think if we hadn’t showed up, they may have went through with it, but with him standing up and saying what he did, it made me feel a lot better,” Sherry Lewis said.
Dennis Rigans said he still trusts the commissioners.
“For some reason, I think they were more honest than ever before, so I have a little more confidence in them,” he said.
Others weren’t convinced that the change was sincere.
Mary McMillion doesn’t trust the commissioners “at all.” She doesn’t feel like they’ve done enough for the Black community, and wants any changes to go through the community first.
Bladen County Democratic Chair Ted Singletary said it was a “convenient” shift.
“You don’t show up to anything, things don’t change,” he said. “As long as someone is showing up and showing their displeasure and showing their point of view, then you have to rethink your motives, what direction you want to go, because you are trying to save your budget.”
At the meeting, several public speakers asked the commissioners to spread the message to other counties that might consider making changes after Callais: the community will not stand for it.
If they catch even a whiff of voter suppression, they’ll be there to fight it, said NAACP President Debra Maxwell.
“You changed what you said, and I appreciate that, and I appreciate every member, friend and ally that came out tonight, but we are vigilant,” she said. “We have gone through too much this year and the past year, and we will not take it anymore.”
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