Orange County Commissioners Discuss Changes to Board's Election Process

The Board of Orange County Commissioners recently discussed potential changes to how its members are elected.

The board’s election process has been the same since May 2008, when the county moved to a multi-member district and at-large model for its government. Currently, three members of the seven-person board are elected from District 1 in the southern part of the county, containing Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Two seats are created from District 2, which is largely the northern region, and two seats are at-large.

In years when there’s a presidential election, two District 1 seats become available. No other race for the Board of County Commissioners creates a scenario where candidates are competing for more than one seat at a time.

The discussed changes at Tuesday’s virtual Board of County Commissioners meeting include potentially redrawing the districts following the release of the 2020 Census population demographics. One option might be creating five single-member districts in the county and keeping the at-large seats, while another could be creating seven districts or seven at-large seats. The District 1 multi-member election could also be split into two specific seats, where candidates must file for a specific one instead of eligible for either.

Chair of the Board of County Commissioners Penny Rich spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck about the discussion. She said altering this election model has been discussed numerous times in the past.

“Commissioner Dorosin, who has been very vocal about this since 2016, just wanted to have that conversation to see if we could take some steps forward to try and review this,” said Rich. “[He wanted to] get input from experts as well as community members and see if we wanted to change things up.”

Dorosin, who has been a District 1 candidate in his elections to board, submitted an attachment to this agenda item outlining his reasoning. He argues the current model’s multi-member election for District 1 every four years confuses voters and leads to irregularities in how ballots are cast. He also says it’s not an equitable model since neither District 2 candidates, at-large candidates or District 1 candidates in non-presidential election years have the same problem in their own races.

Rich, who also runs in District 1, said such voting irregularities were highlighted with the latest primary election for the board.

“What happened during the 2020 primary,” she said, “is something called a single shot. Lots of people single-shot their vote [meaning] they’re not voting for two people. They’re actually only voting once when they could be voting twice. That is a flaw in the system, it shouldn’t be happening.”

A vote to create a committee to review potential options passed 6-1 during Tuesday’s meeting. While Rich described the dialogue about potential changes as positive, she said there’s a long way to go before anything would be cemented.

“There’s movement,” said Rich. “We put some dates to the discussion, we put some dates to when this committee should be created and we put a 2022 date on when it should go onto a referendum. So, if everything falls into place, [this change] could happen.”

If approved, any changes to the Orange County Board of Commissioners’ election process likely would be enacted in 2026.

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Orange County Commissioners Discuss Changes to Board’s Election Process

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