“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
School Board Runoff is Voter Suppression
A perspective from Kay Singer
By now many folks know there will be a runoff election for the Orange County Schools Board of Education. The law that, in a contest for 3 seats, allows the fourth place finisher to call for a runoff is, in reality, a voter suppression law that is steeped in our racist past [Brower, M. (2022, July 14). The Racist Roots of Runoffs in the South. Democracy Docket; Wilson, R. (2014, June 4) Runoff Elections: A Relic of the Democratic South. Washington Post].
That law, NC GS 163-293, was passed in 1971, fifty-three years ago. It stipulates that in multi-person contests, if a candidate does not receive 50% of the votes cast, a losing candidate can call for a runoff.
In the March 5 election, there were seven candidates for three open seats on the Orange County Board of Education. Carrie Doyle and Wendy Padilla came in first and second, respectively. Jennifer Moore came in third, with 6,528 votes, 482 more votes than Bonnie Hauser who finished fourth with 6,046 votes. Yes, 482 votes more. The election was not too close to call; it was not close enough to ask for a recount. Yet rather than accept her defeat, Bonnie Hauser is using NC GS 163-293 to call for a runoff election, effectively suppressing those 482 votes. If Jennifer Moore had gotten 60 more votes of the 39,528 votes cast there would be no runoff allowed.
Of the 10 states that allow such runoffs, all but 2 are in the South. They function to suppress votes. How can they operate in a racist fashion? Let’s say there are 4 candidates for 3 seats on a school board. Three candidates are white, one is black. In the election, the black candidate comes in third, securing a seat on the board, with a substantial number of votes, e.g., 482, more than the candidate who comes in fourth. However, that third place candidate falls short of the 50% of votes cast, e.g., by 66 votes. According to NC GS 163-293, the fourth-place candidate can call for a runoff. The runoff allows for the voters who voted for the original two white candidates to coalesce around the fourth-place white candidate, shutting out the black candidate who came in third in the original election and had earned the seat, by a wide margin.
The law that Bonnie Hauser is using to call for a runoff in the school board election is suppressing the votes of 482 citizens who voted for Jennifer Moore in the March election. Don’t let a flawed law suppress your vote. Show up to vote for Jennifer Moore in the runoff election May 14 with early voting beginning April 25.
Information on early voting can be found at https://www.orangecountync.gov/1116/Early-Voting
NC GS163-383 is a voter repression law. I call on our local representatives, Graig Meyer (NC Senate District 23) and Renee Price (NC House District 50) to pursue legislation that would repeal NC GS 163-293.
Kay Singer
Orange County Schools Board of Education 1986-1994
Chair, 1988-1990
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
Well said! The idea that taxpayers are funding a runoff in which a candidate defeated the next closest opponent by almost 500 votes, just speaks to how much work is left to undo the harm systemic racism is doing to our communities, especially our children.