Is the election of county commissioners in Washington County, Indiana illegal? That is the issue posed in a federal suit filed last week by a resident of Salem, Indiana (located in Washington County). Here are some quotes from a story today in the Louisville Courier-Journal:
A Washington County woman has filed a federal lawsuit aimed at forcing county commissioners to change the size of districts. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in New Albany last week by Salem resident Angela Mead cites an Indiana law that required all counties to perform redistricting in 2001. The suit claims that Washington County has not done so and that the populations of its districts are not equal. The commissioners said redistricting is not required for Washington County. * * *A shorter AP story on the suit has also been published. Here is a page with map showing the location of the county, and information on the commissioners (it is the last county on the page). Posted by Marcia Oddi at May 9, 2004 12:29 PMMead says in her suit that District Two, represented by Phillip Lofton, has the largest population at 13,916, while District Three, represented by Jerry Roberts, is the smallest with 5,663 people. District One has 7,644 people. The county's total population of 27,231 as measured in the 2000 census means that if districts were equal in population, each would have 9,077 people, the suit says. The complaint notes that federal courts have ruled that a combined deviation of 10 percent or more from the ideal population in the largest and smallest districts is a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. * * *
The law is clear in its requirement that counties perform redistricting, said Dale Simmons, co-general counsel of the Indiana Election Division. Even if the commissioners simply re-adopt the current districts, they must take formal action to do so, he said. But the commissioners are right about the lack of any population requirement for districts, he said.
"They don't have to be balanced. I'm sure that's why it wasn't written into the statute. ... And there's no constitutional issue," he said. Each of the three districts is voted on countywide in all but two of Indiana's 92 counties. Simmons said the balanced population rule applies only to Marion and Lake counties, which restrict commissioner voting to each district's residents. Wide variations are acceptable in the other 90 counties, said Simmons.