Marion council cools to voting method change

Marion council cools to voting method change

Citywide election method likely to remain in place

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion City Council is unlikely to do away with atlarge voting, but will wait until it has more answers to its questions before taking any action.

The issue of at-large voting was brought up at the September council meeting by former Councilwoman Sherry Holliman who said that Marion is the only city in Crittenden County aside from Turrell that doesn’t vote by ward, and that the system could be considered discriminatory against minorities.

“The ordinance was created in 1946 when the city had a population of 2,500,” Holliman said. “It made sense at that time. But now we have a population of 12,000 and we are a diversified city. I don’t know why we are using both voting systems. It can make room for discrimination.”

Marion is divided into three political wards with equal population. Candidates run for office for a specific ward based on where they live, but are elected at-large where all voters can cast a ballot for every candidate regardless of whether they reside in that ward or not.

Holliman said at-large voting isn’t fair because it allows voters in other wards to have a say in electing a person to represent a specific ward they don’t live in.

“That’s not right,” Holliman said. “That’s not fair.

Why should people in Ward One have anything to say about people who are running for Ward Three?”

Holliman asked each councilmember their opinion about whether they favored the current system.

“If the argument is for atlarge, why don’t we get rid of the wards?” Holliman asked. “Why do we have to have both? Why do others around us vote by ward only?”

Councilman Cliff Wood said he likes the current voting method because it makes every councilmember accountable to the whole city.

“I like the way we have it set up,” Wood said. “If I just took care of my neighbors and spend a bunch of money in my ward on as- phalt and getting (water manager) Jim (Shempert) to fix the water lines in my neighborhood, I’d get reelected every time. But that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the city. Right now I am accountable to everyone.

We spend it on the entire city.”

Councilman Don Hanks said running for election atlarge means he has to campaign for votes and support in the whole city, not just his ward.

“I like the whole city voting for me,” Hanks said. “I serve the whole city. I live in a ward. I don’t represent just that ward. I represent all three. In the general election everyone votes for me. I am not leaving any one out.”

Councilman Jim Spence agreed.

“I’m satisfied with the way it is now,” Spence said.

Councilman Bryan Jackson said there are other cities in Arkansas that also have at-large voting and pointed to Mena as an example.

“I’ve looked around the rest of the state,” Jackson said. “Marion is not the only one.”

Jackson said the residents he talked to seem to be happy with the way elections

are held.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Jackson said. “I asked other people in Marion if they had a problem with it and the people I asked didn’t have an opinion one way or the other.”

Councilman Kelly O’Neal said he has been polling residents and found that half of the people he talked to don’t care, while the other half seem to feel that their vote is being diluted by at-large voting.

“A person can come in and vote for a person in their ward who lives in ward two and three,” O’Neal said.

“So it does make a difference.”

However, O’Neal said he agrees that everyone on the council represents the whole city and not the interests of a single ward.

“We are a councilman for the whole city,” O’Neal said. “I take pride in being a councilman for the City of Marion. If I’m not, I don’t need to be here and a person who can’t see beyond their ward lines doesn’t need to be here.”

Kwame Cash, a resident attending his first city council meeting, said he isn’t sure which system is best for the city, but does agree that the city is growing and is more diverse and that the current system might not be the most representative of the city.

“I’m not sure if I do or not,” Cash said. “It does seem to me a worthy question to ask as the community grows and its interests diversify, as well as its population and whether or not the fathers, the sort of stewards of the city and the people responsible for the well being of the community, represent those growing interests and growing constituencies. That is just my respectful submission to the council.”

Holliman argued that the at-large system allows people in power to use their influence to get people to vote against another candidate in another ward.

“I can call my friends in Ward One and Ward Two and say ‘hey, vote for Sherry,’ and they live in Ward One and Ward Two,” Holliman said. “I’m not saying it is going to eliminate

it (discrimination). But

it will reduce it.”

Holliman asked City Attorney James “Jimbo” Hale to continue to research the law about whether it is legal to have wards and still have at-large voting.

Hale said he is still waiting back for an opinion from the Arkansas Municipal League.

Holliman said most of what she heard is based on the opinion and personal preference of the councilmembers

and not what is

best for the city’s demographics.

According to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, at-large methods of voting are often discriminatory because they prevent voters of color from electing candidates of their choice where they are not the majority in the ward or district.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, numerous at-large systems have been struck down under Section 2, which prohibits every state and local government from imposing any law that results in discrimination against racial minorities.

“Everything I heard was I,” Holliman said. “That in itself is a discriminatory statement. If we continue to operate under both voting systems, I know we are being set up for a potential lawsuit.”

By Mark Randall