True District Voting

The state governments of EVERY state in the United States are voted into office this way, including North Carolina

The United States House of Representatives is voted into office this way

It assures communities are represented in their local government by people who live in that community and are fully accountable to the citizens of that community

But the Warren County Democrat Party and the Warren PAC oppose it because it weakens their control of elections and officeholders.

• There would be five county commissioners representing each of five districts. But they would be nominated and elected by ONLY the citizens of each specific district. They would no longer be elected by the votes of citizens of the other districts. These commissioners would truly have the best interests of their district specific at heart. “Neighbors Electing Neighbors” describes this concept well.

• Two additional commissioners would be added to the board, but these commissioners would be elected “at large”. Their election to the board would be determined by all the registered voters in the county. These two commissioners would need to understand the issues facing the county as a whole. They would weigh the merits of proposed board action relative to the needs of the entire county…not just an individual district.

• Seven members would be very beneficial in avoiding the inaction or misguided decision-making that has resulted from the personal bickering infecting much of the board’s activity in recent years.

• Most importantly, the proposal recommends that the entire board be limited to two-year terms rather than four-year terms. If an individual district makes a bad voting decision and their commissioner is not acting according to the wishes of the constituency, the district needn’t wait four years to “fire” that commissioner. Similarly, the countywide at-large commissioners would be under the same two-year evaluation/re-election process.

• Electing our board representatives by district would result in more communication between candidates and citizens during the campaign and during their term in office.

• Campaigning would be more economical and less time-consuming as the geographic area of the campaign would be concentrated to the individual district. Obviously this would not be the case for the candidates for the two at-large seats.

• The combination of two-year terms and limiting the scope of the campaigns will encourage new faces to enter the process. People who want to serve, but may have been deterred by the expense and time required to campaign countywide, would now consider representing their neighborhood for a term or two.

Representatives and senators of both houses of our state government in Raleigh are up for election every two years. The entire congress of the United States is up for election every two years. All our house and senate representatives in Raleigh and in Washington are elected ONLY by the citizens from the specific districts they serve.

Certainly, this structure of representative government that has served our state and country well for the past couple of centuries would prove to be advantageous for Warren County.

Over the past three years the Warren County Republican Party has been vocal about this issue. And while the county GOP may have taken a visible position on true-district-voting, THIS IS NOT A REPUBLICAN ISSUE...it is an issue of fairness and accountability.