The Department of Justice has effectively scuttled plans for July’s Macon-Bibb County government election.

County Attorney Virgil Adams said he’d gotten a letter Tuesday from the federal agency, which said it needs more information to consider giving its stamp of approval to elections for the new government. The agency is also seeking more information on proposed changes in school board elections.

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The Justice Department had been expected to rule on the changes by June 3. The agency said legislators wrote bills to force the nonpartisan elections despite protests.

“Concerns have been raised that these changes will result in a retrogression in the ability of minority voters to participate in the electoral process and elect candidates of their choice and were undertaken by the local delegation despite concerns expressed by members of the affected elected bodies, including comments that the changes were proposed, at least in part, for racial reasons,” wrote T. Christian Herren Jr., chief of the voting section, in a letter dated Friday.

http://www.macon.com/2013/05/28/2495999/federal-government-delays-macon.html#storylink=cpy (paid subscription may be required)

To Whom It May Concern:

The Justice Department is currently reviewing an Act of the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly to allow Nonpartisan, July Elections in Macon, Georgia and Bibb County, Georgia. I urge you to deny preclearance for said elections.

The citizens of Macon and Bibb County narrowly approved a referendum last year that provided for the consolidation of the governments of the City of Macon and Bibb County. The referendum was completely non-binding because its implementation depended entirely upon the will of the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly. Local Republicans generally favored consolidation (as its effects would be to eliminate the seats of several Democratic officeholders and to reduce the political power of the Democratic Party in Bibb County). Many local Democrats, myself included, opposed consolidation for the same reasons. The actual terms of the consolidation referendum were hotly debated and carefully negotiated between state representatives of both parties because everyone knew that some Republican support would be required to push the consolidation bill through the Georgia General Assembly, whereas some Democratic support would be required to get the consolidation referendum passed in strongly-Democratic Bibb County. As such, the two groups made a deal, each side giving a little to gain a consensus.

The Georgia General Assembly passed the consolidation bill, and then promptly stabbed Bibb County’s Democrats in the back by amending the law (SB 25, 26, 30 and 31) to make local elections nonpartisan (favoring Republicans—one can’t win a county-wide office in Bibb County unless one runs as a Democrat) and to have elections held in July (also favoring Republicans—because Democrats are more likely to turn out to vote in November elections). These points were negotiated between the members of the state delegation that drafted the 2012 consolidation referendum. The people of Macon and Bibb County voted for partisan elections in November, not for nonpartisan elections in July. The actions of the Georgia General Assembly, in regards to this matter, constitute de facto discrimination and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as Bibb County is majority African-American. The will of the people of Bibb County has been thwarted by the Georgia General Assembly for reasons that are, in my opinion, related to race. It is likely that the Georgia General Assembly acted with the specific intent of disenfranchising African-American voters and injuring the political institution that facilitates and insures African-American participation in local government. I refer, specifically, to the Democratic Party of Bibb County, Georgia.

I was proud to vote for President Obama in 2008. I am further pleased that he was re-elected in 2012, in part because I prefer to have Democrats running the Justice Department. We now need the aid of the Justice Department in thwarting the plans of a Republican General Assembly that seeks to weed out Democratic officeholders and to dilute African-American voting power whenever and wherever possible.

I urge you to find that the acts of the Georgia General Assembly, in regards to this matter, constitute a violation of the Voting Rights Act and to deny preclearance for nonpartisan elections in July in Bibb County, Georgia.

I thank you for your service to the people of the United States and for your kind attention to this pressing matter.

Very truly yours,