JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Jacksonville council members are pushing back against House Bill 1038, which would change how the city council is voted upon.
The bill would replace Jacksonville’s current ward system with an at-large voting system.
Currently, the city is divided into four wards, and voters in each ward elect their own representative. There are also two at-large seats.
Under the proposed at-large system, all registered voters in Jacksonville would vote for every city council seat.
Opponents say the change could dilute Black representation on the city council, where three of the four ward council members are Black.
“I believe that the decision should not be made by those outside of Jacksonville, but Jacksonville residents should be able to make that decision,” said Mickey Smith, Ward 2 city council representative. “They voted us in these seats, and how they vote and when they vote should be determined by the city, not individuals outside the city.”
The bill was co-sponsored by Republican representatives Wyatt Gable and Phil Shepard, both of whom represent Onslow County but not Jacksonville.
Gable says the bill is meant to address concerns of uneven voter representation between the districts, where some have 1,200 voters and others around 200.
Ward 1 representative Jerome Willingham said the council did not request the change.
“Council did not ask for this, and I think local bills that result in the way that they do, where council doesn’t ask for it or is something council doesn’t want, is just colonization,” Willingham said.
Smith said the proposal appears to target wards 1 and 4.
“It’s those who have been, historically, since the ward system was in place, African Americans,” Smith said.
Willingham said all city council members had a chance at the meeting to speak up in favor of or against the bill, but not everyone did. Those who did speak are against it.
Willingham is strongly against the at-large system.
“Well, I don’t understand the legality of the legislature forcing a system on us which would be the at-large system that was determined discriminatory in 1990,” Willingham said.
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