Six Greensboro residents joined the city itself in a lawsuit filed Monday that seeks to overturn a recent state law that would radically alter the method of city council elections. In the court filing submitted to the US District Court on Monday, attorneys from Brooks, Pierce and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice claimed the redistricting move “destroys self-government by the City of Greensboro and its citizens. If permitted to take effect, the Greensboro Act would destroy municipal government crafted and controlled by the citizens of Greensboro and replace it with a city council founded upon unconstitutional voting districts and expressly limited in its powers of self-government,” the suit states.
City residents Lewis A. Brandon III, Joyce Johnson, Reverend Nelson Johnson, Richard Alan Koritz, Sandra Self Koritz, and Charli Mae Sykes joined the City of Greensboro in the lawsuit filed against the Guilford County Board of Elections. The county board is empowered by state law to administer elections for the City of Greensboro.
The citizen plaintiffs, represented by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, claim that overpopulation of voters in certain new districts under the plan will devalue their individual vote when the plan takes effect with the opening of the candidate-filing period on July 27. They also claim that their “communities of interest” have been divided among multiple districts under the plan. Additionally, both the citizen plaintiffs and the city claim the new law violates the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
Full Article: Greensboro challenges state over forced redistricting.