Thompson v. Glades County Bd. of County Com'Rs
| Decision Date | 24 July 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-10669.,05-10669. |
| Parties | Billie THOMPSON, Patricia Brown, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. GLADES COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, Glades County School Board, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Neil Bradley, ACLU Foundation, Inc., Atlanta, GA, Cristina Correia, Avondale, GA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Gavin Wallace O'Brien, Gavin W. O'Brien, P.A., Holmes Beach, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before TJOFLAT, BARKETT and GOODWIN,* Circuit Judges.
This is a vote dilution case. African American voters in Glades County, Florida, challenge the at-large method of electing members of the County Commission and School Board, claiming that it depreciates their right to vote on account of their race in violation of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Following a bench trial, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida denied relief. The Plaintiffs now appeal the court's judgment. We reverse and remand.
Glades County spans approximately 988.2 square miles of southwest Florida. According to the 2000 decennial census, the county had an overall population of 10,576, and a voting age population of 8,329. Of the overall population, 69.4% were white, 15.0% were Hispanic, and 10.5% were African American. Of the voting age population, 73.2% were white, 12.7% were Hispanic, and 10.1% were African American.1 Population numbers alone, however, do not portray the unique geographic character of the minority population in Glades County. Most of the Hispanic population is dispersed across the southern portion of the county, but the African American population is concentrated in an area known as Washington Park, which sits in Moore Haven, the county's seat and largest city.
The County Commission and the County School Board both consist of five elected members who serve staggered, four-year terms. Likewise, the same election scheme governs both the County Commission and the School Board: the county is divided into five residential districts, and candidates run from the district in which they live, but at-large voting determines the outcome of each election.2 Candidates that receive a majority of the countywide vote in a primary election are selected as their political party's nominee,3 and a plurality of the countywide vote is sufficient to win the general election.
During the 1998 Democratic Primary for School Board District Four, Mike Pressley won the two-candidate contest with 58.2% of the vote, defeating plaintiff Billie Thompson, who garnered 41.8% of the vote.4 Prior to 1998, however, the only other African American candidate for countywide office on either the County Commission or School Board was Charles Hall, who won a seat (by a nine-vote margin during a run-off primary election) on the County Commission in 1976.
This law suit commenced on May 4, 2000. The Plaintiffs, Billie Thompson and Patricia Brown, African Americans, reside in Glades County and are registered to vote there. The defendants consist of the Board of County Commissioners and its five members, the County School Board and its five members, and the Supervisor of Elections. The complaint contained three "causes of action."5 The first is that the at-large schemes for the election of members of the County Commission and School Board were adopted by the State of Florida and have been maintained for the purpose of diluting, minimizing, and canceling out the voting strength of African Americans in violation of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act.6 The second and third causes of action allege, respectively, that the same at-large electoral schemes deny the Plaintiffs the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment,7 and their rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.8 For relief, the complaint sought a declaratory judgment that the challenged schemes were invalid under § 2 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, injunction against their further use, and the creation of "new procedures or plans for election" of the members of the County Commission and School Board.
The defendants, in their answers, denied that the challenged electoral schemes diluted the Plaintiffs' right to vote, and asserted, moreover, that a remedy could not lawfully be created to enhance the Plaintiffs' voting power. As the case proceeded toward trial, the Plaintiffs proposed what they contended would be a remedy that met the requirements of law, specifically the Supreme Court's decision in Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986): the County Commissioners and School Board members would reside in and be elected from five single-member districts, one of which would contain an African American majority among the voting age population.
The filing of this law suit invited a non-binding special referendum that was held on June 5, 2001. Two questions were presented: (1) "Shall the five members of the Board of Commissioners of Glades County, Florida, be elected to office from single-member districts by the electors residing in each of those districts only?"; and (2) "Shall the five members of the School Board of Glades County, Florida, be elected to office from single-member districts by electors residing in each of those districts only?" A majority of those voting opposed single-member districts. The final tally for the County Commission indicated 825 votes (53.4%) opposed to single-member districts, and 719 votes (46.6%) in favor of changing the election scheme. Of these votes, in precincts with an African American voting age population of 90% or greater, 52% voted in favor of single-member districts; in precincts with a white voting age population of 90% or greater, 48% voted in favor of single-member districts. With regard to the School Board, the final tally indicated 848 votes (54.9%) opposed to single-member districts, and 698 votes (45.1%) in favor of changing the election scheme. Similarly, in precincts with an African American voting age population of 90% or greater, 52% voted in favor of single-member districts; in precincts with a white voting age population of 90% or greater, 47% voted in favor of single-member districts.
The case went to trial before the district court on October 10, 2001. The court heard the testimony of four witnesses (the Plaintiffs and two of their experts), received the Plaintiffs' exhibits, which included the reports of a third expert, and the parties' stipulations, and then recessed the proceeding to await the filing of depositions. Over the next several days, the Plaintiffs filed the depositions of eight members of the County Commission and School Board and the Supervisor of Elections. On November 14, the court reconvened the proceeding to hear the parties' closing arguments, which focused on the Plaintiffs' proposed illustrative redistricting plan and the defendants' reasons why the plan could not be lawfully implemented.
The Plaintiffs relied on three expert witnesses: (1) William S. Cooper, who prepared the Plaintiffs' illustrative plan9 for five single-member districts;10 (2) Dr. Steven P. Cole, who analyzed statistics relating to Glades County voter behavior;11 and (3) Dr. Gary R. Mormino, who provided socio-political background to Florida's adoption of statutes and constitutional provisions affecting the method of election to the County Commission and School Board.
The illustrative plan proposed by the Plaintiffs contains five new single-member districts. Among the new districts, District One contains a slim African American voting age majority. Specifically, 50.23% of the voting age population in District One is African American12 and 15.23% is Hispanic. The total minority voting age population in District One (inclusive of other minorities such as American Indians) is approximately 67%. With a total population of 10,576 in Glades County, each of the five new districts would ideally have a population approximating 2,115 in order to comport with the one-person, one-vote principle under the Fourteenth Amendment. Among the five districts, the plan has an overall deviation of 8.6%, with District One underpopulated by 86 individuals. The following table summarizes the salient features of the Plaintiffs' illustrative plan:
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Percent
Percent Voting
Voting Age
Total Deviation Age African
District Population (persons) Hispanics Americans
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1 2,029 -86 15.23% 50.23%
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2 2,183 +68 13.30% 1.95%
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3 2,211 +96 1.81% 0.44%
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4 2,080 -35 1.99% 0.23%
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5 2,073 -42 35.19% 0.95%
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The distinctive feature of this illustrative plan is that nearly the entire 834-person population of voting age African Americans in Glades County is contained within District One, which is, itself, dwarfed in size by the other districts (due to the large concentration of African Americans in Moore Haven). In sum, 775 of the 834 voting age African Americans (92.9%) would be residents of the proposed District One.
The district court issued its decision in this case on August 27, 2004, in the form of a...
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