Ken at Popehat tries to make sense of the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s logical loop-de-loops in reply to Kingston, North Carolina’s attempt to hold non-partisan municipal elections:
This is honestly one of the most confusing and (if one believes that there are actual limits to federal power) unconstitutional government actions I’ve read of in some time.
The Justice Department has overruled a small North Carolina city’s attempt to end the use of party affiliation in local elections, according to a report in The Washington Times.
According to the article, the Justice Department ruled that party affiliations are needed in part to protect equal rights for black voters. The department determined that white voters in Kinston, N.C., would only cast their ballots for black candidates if they run as Democrats.
The Justice Department recognizes (as I do, having visited the town many times) that everyone in Kinston North Carolina is a Democrat. Black, white, yellow, brown, or blue, the odds are that if you run for office, or vote, in Kinston, you’re voting for a Democrat, and you’re a Democrat yourself.
Of course the Justice Department, under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has a mandate to monitor elections in counties that were once subject to racial voter discrimination. But given that everyone in Kinston is a Democrat, and everyone who wins elective office in Kinston is a Democrat, why does it matter that candidates for elective office suddenly become … nothing? Names, in fact. People who stand for election based on issues rather than party labels?
Go read the rest here. It’s a head scratcher, to be sure.
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