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Push still on to vote by districtTue, 01/31/2006 - 4:54pm
By: John Munford
The process of electing Fayette County commissioners could radically change if a bill authored by local legislators is approved by the Georgia General Assembly. If approved, the bill would force Fayette to abandon the at-large voting process in favor of a district process, which would establish geographical districts in which only voters of those districts could vote for that particular seat on the five-person commission. Currently in the at-large process, all voters in the county can vote for each and every commission position. Creating the district voting process would likely ensure minority representation on at least one county commission seat, particularly because of the demographic shift in north Fayette over the past few years. Rep. Virgil Fludd, chairman of the five-member Fayette House delegation, said district voting is necessary because of the variety of values in the county held by voters in different areas of Fayette. “The concerns of people who live in Brooks and Woolsey are different than the people who live in places like north Fayette or Tyrone,” Fludd said. Although at-large voting can work well in small counties that are homogenous politically, the process doesn’t fit a county the size of Fayette, which has more than 100,000 people now. Rep. Dan Lakly, who opposes creating the district voting process, suggests the concept should be left up to Fayette voters on a referendum later this year. The bill does not have unanimous support from all Fayette house members. Lakly and Rep. John Yates, both Republicans, have not signed onto the bill, which is supported by Fludd and Reps. Roberta Abdul-Salaam and Darryl Jordan, all three Democrats, have signed onto the bill. The House only requires that the legislation have a majority of the delegation voting in favor of a bill for it to be voted on by the entire House, Lakly said. Fludd said the legislation would need to reach the House floor for a vote before the 33rd day of the session because that’s the deadline for approval of legislation to be considered by the Senate. Meanwhile, the pending special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham features five challengers, four of whom are African-American. That’s not telling of the true problem with at-large voting, Fludd said, adding that only two of the candidates in the field are Democrats. Although Fludd said he is “still open to other ideas” such as the referendum, he noted that several public meetings about district voting have been held across the county to gauge public opinion on the matter. login to post comments
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