Supreme court declines to take up case alleging voter discrimination in Georgia: Public service commission, which regulates & sets rates for utilities, accused of disenfranchising Black voters

silence7@slrpnk.net to politics @lemmy.world – 154 points – Supreme court declines to take up case alleging voter discrimination in Georgia
theguardian.com

The commission has five members, each elected to represent one of five districts in Georgia. But elections for each seat are decided in a statewide vote; though the commissioners must live in the district they represent, a voter in Savannah or Augusta has as much say over the commissioner representing Atlanta as a voter who lives there.

By saying it would not consider the plaintiffs’ appeal, the supreme court let stand an appellate court decision that said Georgia’s statewide elections for local districts on the rate-setting body is constitutional.

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If you're going to report on a Supreme Court's failure to consider a case, I'm begging you, tell us in the headline what the appellate decision was. Don't make us dig 10 paragraphs down to find out whether the case was decided for or against.

(Since I don't want to do the exact same thing: The appellate decision held that the commission could continue to be elected by a statewide, rather than a region-by-region vote. This is equivalent to letting voters in Texas have a say in who California's senators should be.)

From the article:

The commission has five members, each elected to represent one of five districts in Georgia. But elections for each seat are decided in a statewide vote; though the commissioners must live in the district they represent, a voter in Savannah or Augusta has as much say over the commissioner representing Atlanta as a voter who lives there.

Yeah, that's a lot of bullshit.

This is not different from five state-wide positions with a requirement that the candidates live in a specific region. It's weird but not particularly unfair.

It's just a matter of presentation.

The commission has five members, each elected to represent one of five districts in Georgia. But elections for each seat are decided in a statewide vote; though the commissioners must live in the district they represent, a voter in Savannah or Augusta has as much say over the commissioner representing Atlanta as a voter who lives there.

Whose dumbass idea was that?

The system was set up using statewide election of 5 commissioners 1907, when the Georgia State Legislature was doing things like passing things like the Felder-Williams Disenfranchisement Act to strip African-Americans of the right to vote. In 2000, they set up districts, but preserved the statewide-election thing.

Justice “No Votes For You!” Roberts strikes again

The heck is Santa doing there in the off-season? Shouldn't he be sipping on piña coladas on some beach in the South Pacific?