Two black NC judges lost races under new districts. They’re fighting the change.
.jpg "Mecklenburg voters would elect district court judges differently if plaintiffs win their lawsuit.")
Two days after a court delayed candidate filing for North Carolina’s 2020 congressional elections, judges could postpone the start of filing in Mecklenburg County’s judicial elections.
A Wake County court is expected to hear a request for the delay Friday.
The hearing is part of a lawsuit challenging judicial districts that took effect in the county for the 2018 elections.
In 2017 the General Assembly created eight districts to elect the county’s 21 district court judges. District judges had been elected countywide.
Supporters said by giving voters fewer people to vet, the change would lead to easier and more careful consideration of candidates. But critics said the law, passed after lawmakers made judicial elections partisan again, was designed to elect more Republicans.
In 2018, two of the county’s Democratic judges — both African American — lost their seats.
Now those two, Donald Cureton and Alicia Brooks, are among the plaintiffs in a suit seeking to overturn the districts. In one court document, their attorney, Bob Hunter of Greensboro, called them victims of “racial sorting.”
“The effect of the redistricting was to eliminate incumbent judges largely based on race,” Hunter wrote. “This effect chills the impartiality of judges and the critical policy of judicial independence.”
Cureton and Brooks, he wrote, were put into a district that was 82% white.
In an affidavit filed this month, Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop — then the main N.C. Senate sponsor of the measure — explained why he proposed the districts for district court judges.
He said after drawing eight new districts for the county’s eight superior court judges, it seemed “illogical” that the higher court judges be elected by fewer people than the lower court judges, who at the time were elected at large.
His district court voting districts overlapped with the superior court districts, which each elected one judge. To accommodate 21 district judges, each of the eight districts has either two or three judges.
“The effect on voters in (districts) with only two candidates versus (districts) with three candidates dilutes the voting power of residents in the two-candidate (districts),” Hunter wrote.
Other critics say the county should go back to an at-large system of electing district judges.
“Judges in our district court serve the entire county as a matter of sound policy,” said Charlotte attorney John Wester, a former president of the N.C. Bar and a registered Republican. “It’s logical for the judges to be elected countywide. They serve the citizens of the entire county.
“There’s no ‘representational’ element in what judges do and the duties of judges.”
Staff writer Michael Gordon and Will Doran of the News & Observer contributed.
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 4:01 PM.
