Orange County should review its process for electing county commissioners in order to ensure fairness.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners has seven members — two at-large members, three representatives for District 1 and two for District 2.
District 1 covers two-thirds of the Chapel Hill Township and District 2 encompasses the rest of Orange County.
Current policy allows each district to nominate representatives in the primary, but ultimately the entire county votes on all district representatives.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents are a “substantial portion”: http://www.ci.chapel-hill.nc.us/index.aspx?page=22&recordid=2669 of Orange County. It is unfair that even though most of these residents reside in District 1, they are able to vote for who represents District 2.
County commissioners should keep Orange County in mind as a whole. But they do so through the lens of their respective districts by representing the voices of their district constituents at the larger county level.
This district system was created in 2006 after a petition was drafted and voted on by the entire county. Six years later, the population of Orange County has increased, especially in the urban area of Chapel Hill.
It is unjust that the heavier populated urban areas have the power to vote for the commissioner set to represent the more rural residents of District 2.
The current system gives these urban residents the power to elect District 2’s representatives by sheer majority, despite differing interests between rural and urban residents.
