Not a full democracy

Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, December 29, 2016.

North Carolina ranks with authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies in terms of electoral integrity, a UNC-Chapel Hill political science professor wrote in The News & Observer of Raleigh last week.

That’s an astonishing statement, but Andrew Reynolds is not an Ivory Tower pundit. He has helped set up elections in Afghanistan, Burma, Egypt and other difficult places, and he and colleagues have created measures to evaluate the quality of elections around the world.

North Carolina does not stack up well. There are many problems with voting restrictions in North Carolina, but the main reason our state stands out is for its extreme gerrymandering.

We should all understand that. It doesn’t take a doctorate in political science to see that state legislative and congressional elections aren’t competitive in North Carolina. But we may not realize just how bad it is.

“North Carolina is not only the worst state in the USA for unfair districting but the worst entity in the world ever analyzed by the Electoral Integrity Project,” Reynolds observed.

Legislators who draw their own districts choose the voters they want. The result, Reynolds contends, is that “legislative power does not depend on the votes of the people.”

Here, the dominant party — at present, the Republicans — holds all the power while winning just a slight majority of the overall vote. Everyone who votes for Democratic representatives or senators is given no voice in Raleigh because Democrats have no power. Just two weeks ago, the Republican legislature even went so far as to diminish the powers of the incoming Democratic governor, despite his statewide election victory. Republicans can do this with impunity because most of them don’t face real elections.

Reynolds makes a good argument that North Carolina operates like a sham democracy in critical respects. The question is what people can do to reclaim the right of real representation.

One avenue is the courts. Dissenters from the Raleigh political power structure have had a lot of success by challenging legislative actions on constitutional grounds. The federal courts are granting legislatures less leeway in drawing partisan gerrymanders, especially if racial minorities are disadvantaged. The courts also can be counted on to provide broader voting rights protections. While the legislature has even tried to manipulate state courts for political advantage, it will find that most judges do uphold constitutional principles.

It’s possible that court-ordered legislative redistricting could lead to special elections next November held on a more nearly level playing field. The prospect of having to run in fair elections could moderate the actions of Republican legislators.

Local governments can also provide a bulwark against legislative abuses. Asheville and Charlotte have staved off legislative attempts to wrest control of their water system and airport, respectively. Greensboro has so far stopped a city council power grab. Cities should fight for their own interests every time they’re threatened by an undemocratic legislature. They can build their own moral authority by encouraging more grass-roots participation in local affairs.

Most importantly, North Carolinians must flood legislators with messages demanding democracy in Raleigh. Americans shouldn’t tolerate less.

http://www.greensboro.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/our-opinion-not-a-full-democracy/article_71519450-f00c-52ed-8212-cfaa69bcc121.html