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L?.W OFFICES <br />COLEMAN, GLEDHILL &. HARGRAVE <br />A PRCF.SSIONAL CORPCP.A:ICN <br />t'_9 E Ti3.YON STRE_R <br />P O DRA~Y'ER. IS}9 <br />HRLSBOROUGH. NORiH C4ROLINA ]i:78 <br />olq.7}>_-.196 <br />FAK 9f 9 i3}~i99i <br />Sdptember 24, 1996 <br />Moses Carey, Jr., Chair' <br />Bill Crowther <br />Alice Gordon <br />Stephen Halkiotis <br />Don Willhoit <br />Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />Post Office Box B1B1 <br />Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 <br />FROM THE DESK OF <br />GEOFFREY E. GLEDHILL <br />RE: Modification in the Structure of the Board of <br />Commissioners <br />Dear Board Members: <br />This letter is intended .to provide guidance to the Board as <br />it considers whether to restructure the mode of election of the <br />Board of Commissioners. North Carolina General Statute Section <br />153A-58 provides four options foz the mode of electing boards of <br />commissioners. The first option is that the qualified voters of <br />the entire county nominate all candidates for and elect all <br />members of the board. This is the present system for nominating <br />and electing members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. <br />The other three options call for the county to be divided <br />into electoral districts with board members apportioned to the <br />districts "so that the quotients obtained by dividing the <br />population of each district by the number of commissioners <br />apportioned to the district are as nearly equal as practicable." <br />Population derived electoral districts which are nearly equal in <br />numbers create "representational equality." Reliance on total <br />population is said to ensure that all constituents, whether or <br />not they are eligible to vote, have roughly equal access to their <br />elected representatives. This contrasts with apportionment based <br />on the segment of the population which is voter-eligible. A <br />nearly even division of the voter-eligible population creates <br />what is known as "electoral equality." In a very recent case, <br />Daly v. N_unt, F.2d (CA 4, No. 95-1,933, 8/27/96), the <br />United States Court of P_ppeals for the rr^ourth Circuit affirmed <br />